Team Zero: Kings
by Rex the Emerald Dragon
Summary: Team Zero has come to claim their prize from the Tournament of Kings. It’s time for them to put their skills out onto the table and see just how good they really are! Side fic to my running Team Zero series.
1. Arrival

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters  
Team Zero: Kings**

1: Arrival

The dome darkness of the sky was only brightened by the pink rim outline that circled its way around the horizon to the west. Birds could be seen in the dim light form what remained of the sun flying off across the cityscape.

Street lamps flickered as they gobbled up the electricity needed to become glowing beacons in the darkness of the night, helping any passing traveler to find his way. The square boxes that adorned the sides of the tall, sinister looking tower-like buildings began to also glow with a warm, yellow illumination as the inhabitants flicked on their lights.

Domino City, the place where champions were made, lived, worked and played. The calmness of this place never would suggest to one that such power could be waged within these concrete walls.

No one could predict what would happen next though.

While Domino City was a lovely place, filled with much. The prospect of the future always looking bright, but yet, no one ever knew what would be coming next. A single man never could view the future, wrapped in the darkness beyond the horizon. The secrets that were held, kept from any mortal eyes to see, lay in the abysmal obscurity before them. The only thing known for sure is that, once again, the sun would be rising in the east sending its light across mankind, then drift slowly down in the west, being swallowed up by the horizon.

But there were those who sought the future, what it might hold. What would be to come for him, his friends, his loved ones, and everyone he knows? This dark haired kid was striding his way out of the Domino Airport accompanied by his two team mates and their cheerleader.

Ronin Endo, Reku Yamashita, Akina Oshiro, and Sachiko Meade walked in the looming silence down the street, each having a large bag thrown over his or her shoulder, or carried down at the person's side.

Their faces showed no joy, they showed no pain; they were emotionless. Drained of all life so it seemed. The four of them were exhausted though; the long plane trip was just as it was last time. The departure from the large metal bird was the same.

Their path to the hotel was the same. The city was the same. But, this time, the feeling was far from the same. The feeling of anticipation that flowed in all of them was enormous.

They were here to claim their prize.

Their most recent tournament victory had granted them the right to face three legends of their time. Yugi Motou; the King of Games. Seto Kaiba; the second ranked duelist in the entire world. Joey Wheeler; the third place duelist of the world.

A soft 'ping' echoed through the corridor of the hotel as the elevator came to a complete stop on the desired floor. The metal beast slowly opened it mouth to let its contents out into the carpeted hallway. Down the beige colored walls, light fixtures, pictures and various plant arrangements decorated the place, giving it a warm and home like feeling. The hallway, though carpeted with an odd blue carpet, had a long and very expensive looking red rug that ran the length and back of the hall.

Out of the elevator, Team Zero made their first steps into the new world. Just like the man first making his first impression on the moon, the four of them walked carefully, so as not to disturb the environment more than necessary. Though a jingling sound did soon begin to sound as Ronin fumbled in his pocket for the key to the room.

His hand emerging from his pocket with the golden key in his grasp, the four of them came to a complete stop at a door they were told was their room by the lovely desk clerk downstairs. A rough clanking came as the key was inserted into the door and then slowly turned, the lock on the other side clicking as it gave way to the tangible password.

The large, wooden door slowly opened inward into the first hallway of the room. The four kids gasped at the massive upgrade in room quality they were seeing this time compared to their first visit to Domino City. The four of them gazed at the luxurious room they were accommodated with, even if it was just for a short amount of time.

"Wow, Kaiba really out did himself this time." Ronin whistled in amazement.

"I doubt it." Reku shook his head, taking a few steps into the room. He bag that held his luggage sliding off his shoulder and landing on the carpeted floor of the hallway. "This is probably nothing but pocket change to him."

Slowly the other three walked into the room. Glancing around the actually had to agree with Reku. Despite how expensive the place was this was probably nothing to someone like Seto Kaiba. It was the same place that they stayed at during the Tournament of Kings, but this was definitely and upgraded room from what they had.

The room opened up from the door leading into a small hallway where there was a large metal coat rack against the right side wall. On the left were doors for small closets. After the hallway it opened up into a large square living area. Luxurious furniture adorning the walls of the rooms, accent lighting and a tranquil tone came from the area. In the dead center of the room was a furnished, wooden table with four chairs, one on each side. The decoration on the table was exquisite, made by the hands of a skilled wood worker. On one far wall were large sliding glass doors, which lead out to a balcony over looking the city of Domino.

Opposite from the hallway were two more sets of doors. These most likely led to the bedrooms of the room.

"Yeah, pocket change." Ronin agreed finally, changing his mind. He wished that his pocket change could afford something like this. Unfortunately he could barely afford to by new packs of cards for himself.

"Either way, it's ours for the time being." Akina smiled wide as she let her own baggage fall to the floor next to Reku's. "For the short time we are going to stay here, I think we'll stay pretty well kept."

She began to walk into the room, noticing another door off to her left. Reaching out and turning the knob, the latch clicked opening the door to a full bathroom. Shiny white titles running all the way around the room, the floor being covered with gold lace, hunter green rugs. Very expensive.

Sachiko proceeded into the room farther than Akina, the two guys following behind her. When she reached the far end she turned the knob on the left hand door of what they were assuming to be the bedrooms. They were pleasantly surprised when they were indeed the sleeping quarters. One for the gals, the other the guys.

The rooms contained: two beds, a small wooden desk and large, spotless windows over looking the night skyline of Domino City.

The room was perfect. Anything they could ever need and more located in the little bit of space this hotel room took up in the grand scheme of the entire building. Pocket change or not, the four of them realized that this type of room they were not going to get to stay in very often in their lives. They would have to savior the moments they were in, taking in all the sights and luxuries that room had to offer.

* * *

"Well, it'll be fun none-the-less." Joey's voice carried from the leather-covered couch in Seto Kaiba's office. Sitting on the arm of the couch with his feet resting on the floor on either side of him, the bond haired boy smiled wide when he received a warm smile from a tri-haired kid that sat across the room from him. 

"That is will indeed Joey." Yugi Motou, the reining top duelist in the world, nodded back to his friend. Crossing his arms across his chest, Yugi looked up at a large, shiny wooden desk surface that sat at the front of the room. Behind the desk was the big CEO of Kaiba corp. as well as the second best duelist in the entire world; Seto Kaiba.

The brown haired, blue-eyed businessman locked his fingers together, resting his chin on the bridge they were making. The expression on his face told Yugi that he was rather bored with the conversation that was going on. Lifting his head, he frowned at Yugi once before spinning his chair around to look out the large windows that sat at the back of his office.

"This game is not about 'fun', only the strongest duelists in the world can make it." Kaiba repeated his typical phrase. "And in a duel against us, those three had better not think this just to be some friendly game for fun."

"Oh Kaiba-boy, you need to lighten up." Pegasus, who was sitting in a nice leather chair at the far end of the room, spoke up. Running a hand through his white colored hair, the red suited man closed his eyes, grinning all the while. "If you are as talented as you say, you shouldn't have even a single problem facing anyone of these three."

"I won't." Kaiba's voice rang out from behind the large backed chair, the business man not taking his eyes off of the city that lay beyond the windows in his office. "I won't be losing my duel."

"Just make sure to have some fun with it too, Kaiba-boy." Pegasus continued to grin before his eyes opened, dropping to the carpeted floor. _"Look who's talking. I lost to that duelist; Hygin and he made me look like I was nothing but an armature."_ Looking up, his eyes rested on the spiky headed kid that was sitting on the couch, facing the stuck-up businessman. _"When I lost to you and your other self, Yugi, did I really lose all of my talent in dueling?"_ Curling his fingers into a fist, he let his head drop again to the carpeted floor. _"Maybe…"_

"Either way, it's late, and we will be having those duels tomorrow." Kaiba spun around in his chain, looking at the three other people decorating his office. "So I'd suggest you get out of my office and go rest up." Shifting his eyes to his right, he looked at the blond haired duelist that was still sitting on the arm of Kaiba's couch. "And for you Wheeler, I'd suggest making a deck that is semi-playable and doesn't do such a wonderful job of showing off your pathetic dueling skills."

"Kaiba!" Joey growled, clenching his hand into a fist and holding it up to threaten the brown haired CEO. "Why you…"

"Just let it go Joey." Yugi smiled kind of dumbly, trying to calm down his best friend. "Your deck and dueling skills are great. You'll be fine. But Kaiba is right; we do need to get going as it is late at night." Standing up, the tri-colored haired boy looked at Kaiba.

"And tomorrow this will all be over and we can get on with our lives." Kaiba grunted, glaring back up at the raining King of Games. Not another word was spoken, just the intense glares between the two of them. A billions words silently exchanged in milliseconds within the very close distance between the two rivals.

Pegasus, Joey and finally, Yugi exited Kaiba's office, closing the door behind them as they left, each of them going their separate ways. As the door clicked with its latching, Kaiba turned to a computer sitting on his left hand side. Jerking the mouse quickly, the screen lit up and he continued to do some work.

* * *

Finally getting settled in, the four member team sat around the large wooden table in the middle of the hotel room, each of them except Sachiko was looking over their decks. Conversation was focused mainly on the upcoming matches, and what they were expecting to see. The last thing any of them wanted to do was embarrass themselves in front of the entire world. If they could even put up a decent, respectable fight, that would be enough. But of course, their goal was to win the duels! 

"I wonder how well that would work." Reku was mumbling below his breath, pulling out a few of the cards that was in his deck, laying them out on the table he observed them for a second, pulling out other cards from his deck and laying them down with them.

"Remember, those three watched everything we did during the tournament." Ronin looked up from his own stack of cards, staring at his black haired friend. "No doubt every card we played was recorded, and I'll bet the three of them were studying our strategy come that final battle with Chime. They know what kind of combo's we had to pull off to win that game." Looking back down at his deck, he looked as if he was considering something himself. "We have to change it up enough that maybe, just maybe, we can catch them off guard slightly. Throw something new at them."

"Don't worry dear." Sachiko reached out, patting Ronin on the shoulder. "I'm sure you'll do just fine. You, as well as you all," she looked around the table at Reku and Akina as she spoke, "are very quick at thinking on your feet. You've been put in some pretty hellish duels, and managed to come up with a way to win." Brushing a lock of her sandy blond hair out of her tranquil green eyes, she smiled at them. "And besides, we all support each other. We'll always be there for one another."

"Yeah." The three of them nodded at Sachiko's comments, looking around at each other as well. They did have a strong bond, and they had been through so much together, they could get through this too. They knew they could!

Still though, as the gentle breeze blew through the open side glass door that lead to a small outside patio, it carried with it a chilling omen to one of the four of them. A deep frown dragging down the corners of her soft, pink lips.

Pushing her chair back, Akina moved across the living area, stepping out on the deck and leaning against the cold metal railing. Her hair blew slightly from the breeze, drifting out and landing on her face.

"Akina…?" Reku grew worried, pushing himself away from the table and power walking across the room and out onto the patio behind her. Reaching around her, he wrapped his arms around her stomach and leaned his head against hers. "Are you ok dear? You seem a bit stressed."

"I'm fine." She sighed, grabbing the strands of her hair with a swipe of her delicate, slim fingers and moving them off her face.

"And what kind of bull crap are you feeding me?" Reku joked, rocking back and forth with her in his tight embrace. "You are _not_ fine, and it is just that much easier for me to tell when you are worried about something when you are lying to me."

"Reku…" She began, pushing herself up slightly. Letting go of her, Reku stood back and watched as she turned around to face him, looking deep into his brown eyes. "I'm just not strong enough to do this. I have to be the weakest member of this group, and my deck shows it with its stats. I'm going to screw this up, embarrass myself, embarrass the team." Breaking his gaze, she looked down at the space between their bodies. "Embarrass you."

"Why would you feel that you would embarrass us?" Reku asked, grabbing her hands in his, holding them down in her sights. "You are just as strong as the rest of us. This team is the combined strength of us all." Looking up, Akina stared at Reku again as he spoke softly to her. "This team would be nothing without you dear."

Back in the room, Sachiko stared intently at Reku's back through the open doorway. Their words couldn't be made out from inside the room, with the breeze, background noise of Domino City, and how quietly they were talking obscuring any recognition of words.

"What do you suppose they are talking about?" Sachiko asked, leaning against the table.

Ronin, who was still working on his deck as if nothing had happened around him, shrugged and glanced over his shoulder. "Dunno. Reku's probably just calming Akina down. Bet she's just a bit nervous about the up-and-coming duels"

"And you aren't the least bit worried?" Sachiko smirked, cocking her eyes playfully at the young boy sitting next to her.

"Are you kidding me?" Ronin began to chucking, puffing his chest out in an attempt to show his own might. He held it for a good but, building up his own ego before he drastically shrank it. "I'm scared shitless…"

* * *

The computer monitor being the only source of light left in the large, long office room, casting eerie shadows racing across the wooden walls. Kaiba sat intently staring at the bright screen. On it, a white background page with three images lining the left side of it. Next to it, writing in a large list form under big, bolded letters. 

"Team Zero. Endo Ronin, Yamashita Reku and Oshiro Akina." The names slipped slowly through his lips, being lost within the void of the room and the absence of sound. _"A strange team. They have powers that seem to rival the god cards, and yet they are so humble about them."_ Leaning back, Kaiba heard the soft squeaking of his chair as he shifted his weight.

His eyes drifted to the corner of his eye, staring out the glass windows that were the back wall of his office. Down below was the lit-up city that he called his home. The tranquility of the night making the city quite the sight to take in.

"Even as amazing as they are…they weren't good enough the last time we saw them. Hopefully they increased their skills. But…" Moving his attention back to the brightly lit screen, he narrowed his deep brown eyes, glaring at the three pictures. "If they use those cards, it could be trouble."

* * *

"I'm going on a soda run." Ronin announced, sticking his head out through the open doorway leading to the balcony, interrupting Reku and Akina who were still there. "You guys want anything?" He asked, giving a goofy smile. 

"Sure man, thanks." Reku smirked back patting Ronin on the head. "It is very gentlemanly of you to do this. Shows you aren't such a hard ass."

"Silence." Ronin's face grew stern, glaring daggers at his fellow team mate. "I'll cut your pay if you continue to mock me."

"Ok then." Reku pondered playfully, holding up his hand and began to count fingers. "I get nothing for doing this job, and if you cut my pay…I'd be getting….less than nothing…so I would owe you money." Reku's smirked a bit stupidly at Ronin. "Which I ain't got any money to pay you with because you're a lousy boss and refuse to pay me."

"You do realize that didn't make a lick of sense, right?" Ronin smirked, pulling his head back through the doorway and standing up straight.

"Of course." Reku stated, walking back into the room himself, followed closely behind by Akina who has remained silent as the two guys joked with one another.

"Would you mind if I came with you?" Akina asked, directing her question to Ronin who was a bit shocked at first, but smiled back.

"Sure, company would be appreciated."

"I could use a walk; I'm still a bit stiff from the plane ride." Akina admitted, stretching her arms over her head then off to her sides. "So let's go."

* * *

Soon the two of them found themselves standing quietly in the speeding elevator, listening to the soft, rhythmic humming being created as the machine fell a couple of stories to the ground floor. A soft ping entered their ears as the elevator stopped; releasing the pressure that was keeping the doors clamped so tightly shut, and opening them to the world outside. 

Walking out into the carpeted corridor, the two of them found the lighting on this floor gentle, soothing, bathing everything in a rusty yellow color. Walking down the bare walled hallway, the two of them soon found a glass door off to their left side. Through the glass window, the two of them could see the large, glowing machines filled with carbonated beverages, and smaller black machines with various snacks packaged within.

"For being such an elegant hotel, this part of it seems a bit run down." Ronin stated as he pushed open the glass door, cringing slightly from the loud squeal that came from the door hinge.

"Many people here probably don't eat this junk food." Akina said in her quiet voice, walking into the room behind Ronin and assisting the door in closing quietly.

"Probably right. They must go out to high-dollar restaurants to get their midnight snacks." Ronin spoke as he dug into his pocket to find the change needed to make the machine released the canned liquid.

Then silence washed over the two of them again, drowning away in the jingling of Ronin's pocket, and the soft, stable humming coming from the machines. Looking up at Ronin, Akina sighed, grabbing his attention instantly.

"Ronin, do you not want me to duel tomorrow?"

Ceasing his moving, Ronin stared at the young, sandy blond haired woman. "Why wouldn't I want you to duel tomorrow?" He watched helplessly as her soft blue eyes began to cloud up, before they were jerked out of his sight and she could no longer look at him. "Akina, you are a part of this team. You are a valued member. I don't quite understand where this whole question is coming from."

"I just," Akina sank back, leaning against the off pale colored wall that stood behind her. Her head still tilted down, focusing on the white tiled floor that was beneath both of their feet. "I just don't want to embarrass you and Reku. You two are guaranteed to do such a good job here, but I'm afraid my tactics aren't going to be good enough to even put up a three minute fight."

"Thought so." Ronin turned away from her, sliding the small metal disk in his hand into the machine. He continued to do this as he spoke to her. "You are just like us, no different. We are all scared to do this. The pressure of the stature our up-and-coming opponents has is enough to crush the hopes of any duelist."

Pushing his finger against the large rectangular, plastic button on the machine, he waited calmly as the machine processed his order. Clanking and creaking as the machine spit out the can in a small opening down at the bottom of it.

"But the point isn't necessarily to prove we are the best. The point is that we are here to show that we are good at what we do. Remember, this is our prize for the last tournament. Even if we were to lose in the first turn," bending over, Ronin grabbed the can out of the machine and straightened back up, "the bragging rights will come from the fact that we stepped in the ring with the world's best duelists."

"Thanks Ronin." Akina spoke softly, looking back up at him. "Reku said pretty much the exact same thing, but the encouragement that I'm not the only one scared is reassuring." Smiling, she walked over and took the can out of his hand. "We'll all just have to do our bests."

"That is all that can be expected." Ronin smiled back, inserting another coin into the large machine.

* * *

Stepping back into the elevator, the two kids watched as the thick metal doors clamped shut in front of them, causing the elevator to begin its ascent from the basement floor of the complex. 

It hadn't gone up but one floor, when the elevator screeched to a halt, causing the doors to open up to pick up another passenger. Though neither of them was expecting the passenger that they were actually picking up.

Standing outside the elevator was a long faced, white haired man dressed nicely in his red suit. Without looking up, the man took a few short strides into the elevator, turning around so that his back was to the current occupants. Finally looking up, he watched the doors slowly seal shut in front of him.

Reaching over, he pressed the button on the side panel, causing the elevator to rush up the shaft once again.

Akina and Ronin looked at each other dumbfounded. Finally, working up the courage, Ronin stepped up beside the tall man and looked at him.

"Um, Mr. Pegasus?" He spoke, unsure of what kind of reaction to expect from the man.

Looking down a bit startled to hear his name, the man instantly smiled at seeing the young man standing next to him. "Ah, Ronin-boy. What good timing that we'd be riding the elevator at the exact same time. Are you and your team ready for tomorrow? Should be fun."

"Were a bit nervous." Akina admitted, walking up on the other side of the man, the cans of soda still being held in her crossed arms. "But I guess we are as ready as we are going to be."

Surprised by the sudden new voice, Pegasus looked on his right side at the young woman. Double checking, he looked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was going to sneak up on him; looking back once he saw the empty carriage behind him.

"Well good luck with your matches." Pegasus spoke in his typical higher toned voice, showing nothing but a good mood in his eyes.

Looking concerned, Ronin tapped the man on the shoulder. "Are you ok? You looked like you were really sad when you got onto the elevator."

"Yes, it is true I am a bit under the weather." Pegasus looked away from him, staring at the steel door. "It's nothing of concern though, unless." Gaining an idea, he turned looking back down at Ronin. "Would one of you care to honor me with a duel? I won't be dueling during the actual matches tomorrow, but tonight I've got some time." Turning his head, he looked down at a wide eyed Akina. "If you would want to that is."

"I would be the one honored!" Akina squealed, grabbing onto the man's arm. "I would simply love to be your opponent." Looking over at Ronin, she saw him cock his eye at her strange, sporadic behavior. "Though I'd have to stop by my room and grab my duel disk first."

"_What a drastic change she had from the depression she was in just a few stories down."_ Ronin sweat dropped at his hyper teammate. Shaking it off, he spoke up himself. "Yeah, we could go grab our friends. I'm sure they would love to see the duel as well."

"Wonderful!" Pegasus exclaimed, throwing his arms up into the air, a large grin stretching from ear to ear. "The more the merrier. What say you guys meet me on the roof in about, ten minutes or so?"

"We'll be there!" Ronin exclaimed back, simultaneously as the soft ping rang through the metal box. The doors opening up, letting Ronin and Akina off on the floor they were expecting. Turning, they waved back to the red suited man still in the elevator before he was obscured from their sights by the doors closing once again.

Turning, the two kids practically ran back to their room, pounding on the door for the occupants to let them in. Opening the door a second later, Reku was met with a handful of aluminum cans as Ronin and Akina pushed passed him leaving him with all the drinks.

"We've got to go." Ronin announced, standing in the middle of the room while Akina ran into one of the back bedroom where her luggage was stored. Emerging a few moments later, she had her duel disk and was latching it onto her arm.

"Why?" Reku asked, stumbling into the room and setting the four cans of liquid onto the table where a mess of cards was still scattered. "What happened?"

"We met Pegasus in the elevator." Akina spoke, grabbing her deck off of the table and fanning it open to take one last look at it. "He challenged me to a duel up on the roof in about ten minutes."

"Pegasus…?" Sachiko looked over at Ronin a bit surprised. "The creator of Duel Monsters. That Pegasus wants to duel Akina?"

"Pegasus isn't a very common name I would believe." Reku spoke, walking around to Akina and wrapping his arm around her shoulders, tightly squeezing her into his embrace. "That's great honey. Go out there and do you best. We'll be right there rooting for you."

"Just hope these changes to my deck are going to be enough." Akina sighed, folding the deck back up into a stack and beginning to shuffle it. "But I can't back down now, I've got to go out there and do my best." Sliding her deck into her duel disk, she looked up at the door of the room. The sandy blond hair strands that had fallen across her soft skinned face were brushed aside with a swoop of her hand. "Let's go!"

"_The first duel of our trip."_ Ronin pondered, watching as Akina, followed closely by Reku, walked towards the exit of the room. _"It is kind of odd how it happened, but this would be a chance of a lifetime to actually get to duel Maximillion Pegasus. Good luck…Akina."_

* * *

Pegasus stood on the roof of the large building, the gentle breeze blowing his flowing white hair out back behind his head. Looking down, his stared intently at the duel disk that was resting clamped onto his arm. The brown stack of cards he called a deck was locked tightly into place in the deck holder. 

"_My special deck."_ Pegasus sighed, thinking about all of the cards he put into it. _"This deck I've worked with since I created the game of Duel Monsters. Advancing it, perfecting the ultimate strategy of it. But,"_ looking up, Pegasus focused on the door that lead to the stairs coming out of the elevator. The only way on or off of the roof. _"Ever since I lost to Yugi and his other self in the Duelist Kingdom, I seem to have lost my flow. I want, no, I need to do this to see if I still am capable of dueling at all."_ With his left hand, he reached up, brushing his hair aside and touching the left side of his face. _"Even without this."_

The door began to creek open, and Pegasus's opponent came walking out, a determined look blazing in her eye. The look of a duelist.

"Ready Pegasus?" Akina asked, holding up her left arm with the emerald green duel disk on it. Humming, the duel disk activated, snapping the arms of the device up and together, sliding them down to the side of the device and locking them into the place. A clicking noise could be heard to confirm this.

"Of course!" Pegasus cried back, his duel disk mimicking the motions his opponent's did, sliding out and then clicking into place on the front of the device to create the duel plate where the cards would be played.

"Let's duel!" They both cried, the life points shooting up to 4000 for the start of the game.

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Sorry to everyone for the sporadic updates to my fics. Life has twisted and turned its way into pissing me off. But since I reached the end of the first section of my Team Zero: The Last Guard fic, I decided to distract myself from that and finally write this. This takes place **5 years ago from my current fic, just a short time after my Team Zero: Orichalcos fic.**

Isn't it always nice to go back in time to fill in those gaps?

I just wanted to clear that up so no one wondered what was going on. This is, well, obviously nothing you probably didn't already know about. Thus a filler, side fic. But it should be fun if you continue to read. Have a nice day!

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	2. A Book of Childhood Memories

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters  
Team Zero: Kings**

2: A Book of Childhood Memories

Glinting off of the metal air conditioners that lined the large rectangular surface of the top of the hotel, the moon cast its own spot light down onto the gathered group of people, staring each other down.

Humming of the duel disk began to cut through the evening air, setting the stage for the upcoming match that was to take place between a powerful female duelist, and the creator of Duel Monsters himself.

Akina – 4000 LP  
Pegasus – 4000 LP

"Good luck Akina." Ronin said, patting her on the shoulder. "We'll be cheering for you."

"Thanks guys." She smiled, looking back at her three friends who stood behind her. Stepping back, the three of them gave the young woman some room so to conduct her duel in. Turning back, she looked at Pegasus who was smiling rather warmly, his hand already on the top of his deck ready to release his opening hand.

"Before we get started," Pegasus started, looking directly at his opponent, "I would like to thank you for this. I can't explain why, but this means a lot to me."

Blushing slightly, Akina looked the white haired man directly in the face, seeing he was being completely serious. "I think, I should be thanking you for giving me the chance to duel with you. This is a great honour for me."

"No problem!" Pegasus exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "This should be a ton of fun, so if it's alright with you, I'll take first turn honours." Nodding, Akina acknowledged that it was fine with her if he started. Placing his right hand back on top of his deck, Pegasus pulled a large clump of cards off of it and moved them swiftly to his left hand, fanning them open. "Nothing like a good hand to start off a good duel." Pegasus commented, placing his hand back on top of his deck and sliding another card off of it, flicking it over to see its face. "Draw!"

Lights began to flash, a ripple in mid air appearing inches in front of the red suited man. Like a stone thrown into a calm lake surface, the ripple began to spread wider and wider, encompassing a larger area until it stopped growing, spitting out what appeared to be a large black furred rabbit monster. Standing tall on its hind legs, the monster towered upwards revealing a dark blue and green lined breast plate that protected its torso. Lifting up its hands, it revealed human hands covered in white gloves.

"For my opening monster, I call my Dark Rabbit, in attack mode (1100/1500)." Pegasus announced, moving his hand away from his duel disk, leaving the said monster card behind on the duel tray.

"_An odd monster."_ Akina thought, looking at the cartoon-like rabbit that was hopping lightly from one foot to the other in front of its master. _"There has to be something he's hoping to accomplish with it."_

"I set one card face down," Pegasus called out, moving another card from his hand into his duel disk, "ending my turn with that." Shimmering into existence at his feet, the set card appeared to protect him.

"Then it's my turn." Akina cried, sliding the top card off her deck. "Draw!"

Adding the new card to the other five in her hand, she scanned them over to make sure she knew what she was doing. This wasn't just another duel to her, this one meant something. Not only that, but her opponent wasn't just any Joe Blow off of the streets, this was the creator of Duel Monsters himself. The one who put this entire game together. She couldn't afford to look bad in front of him.

"Don't look so nervous." Pegasus chimed in, causing her to look up from her cards instantly. "There is absolutely nothing riding on this duel, and only those of us here really ever have to know." Smiling, he closed his visible eye and chuckled slightly. "Nothing but a game for fun."

"Fun…" Akina looked back down at her cards, taking a deep breath before grabbing one of them. "Right, nothing on the line. I'll summon Swordsman of Landstar, defense mode!"

Appearing before Akina, a horizontal turned hologram of the monster card appeared. Glowing brightly, the face of the card began to spit up a fountain of sparks, cascading down gently all around the card. In the middle of these raining sparks, a small, oval headed warrior appeared, crouching behind his self-tribute shield and a large bladed sword. He was outfitted in brown and purple armor, with a large purple hat on the top of his peach head. (500/1200)

"Wonderful!" Pegasus clasped his hands together. "It's nice to see you are still using such cute and wonderful monsters."

"Well…" Akina was a bit shocked, never having heard such a random comment about such a weak card before. Deciding it better not to say anything, she brushed the hair out of her face and smiled. "I end my turn with that."

"As long as you keep this game in fun, anything can be wonderful." Pegasus spoke up, causing Akina to cock an eyebrow at him. It was like he could read her mind, but instead, he could just tell by the expression upon her face what was going through her mind. "So let's keep this moving along, shall we. My move, draw!"

Snapping his top card off of his deck, Pegasus flipped it over and added it to his hand. Scanning his options, he began to smile.

"_Not fairing too badly. My idea is paying off; taking this game too seriously can drain it of its fun."_ Pulling out one of the cards he held, he held it up to his face, the back of it still facing towards Akina. _"I once had such love for this game, but then I seemed to have lost it. It's time I got it back…"_

Sparking into life, a brown backed card appeared next to the strange cartoon like rabbit. A gust of wind came blowing out from beneath it as it sat, hovering inches above the ground.

"I start by setting this monster in defense mode." Pegasus announced, taking his hand off of the now horizontal turned card placed face down on his duel tray. "And since my rabbit is nowhere near strong enough to attack your monster and win, I shall end my turn at that."

"_He's holding back for something." _ Akina thought, placing her hand on the top of her deck. "It's my move, draw!"

"For the creator of Duel Monsters himself to be using such a weak normal monster, and setting another card in defense mode, they must be more powerful than we are giving them credit for." Ronin analyzed, looking at the playing field.

"Maybe to distract the opponent?" Sachiko suggested, looking at Ronin and Reku who both shrugged slightly in response.

"I thought that I read when he dueled the King of Games in the Duelist Kingdom Tournament that he used a series of cards that was held back from publication in the actual main stream game. Something about manga character monsters." Reku whispered to the other two, looking at the odd comic like monster that Pegasus indeed had face-up on his field. "A literal cartoon deck. Could this monster be what that meant? Oddly drawn, 'animated' monsters?"

"Flame Dancer, in defense mode!" (550/450) Akina announced, placing the card onto her duel tray horizontal. Appearing on the field next to the crouching swordsman, a odd little teki man materialized. Flames burning from torches on the top of its head, as well as on its two arms that seemed to be frozen into place at its sides, pointing upward. The only thing on the statue like monster that was moving was its feet, which vigorously moved back and forth in a rhythmic pattern. "And I shift my Swordsman of Landstar into attack mode."

Standing upright, the little warrior got into a battle position, reading itself to charge into a hopeless battle that lay ahead of it.

"But I will outfit him with a new weapon to help him fight your bunny." Akina called out, sliding the said card into her duel disk.

Before the stunned little monster appeared a long, black bladed saber. At the base of the blade was a blood red eye, twitched back and forth as it looked around the world.

Slowly sheathing his own sword, the little warrior reached out and took a hold of the leather wrapped hilt of the blade hovering before him. The instant he did, the eye began to glow, sending out a stream of yellow energy that raced across Akina's field, smashing into the dancing statue.

"I activate the equipment magic card; Sword of the Soul-Eater. A magic card that only works on level two or lower normal monsters on my side of the field." Akina announced, smirking a bit as she saw the hologram of the teki man before her being engulfed by the sinister light coming from the blade.

"Yup." Pegasus smirked, crossing his arms the best he could with the duel disk on his arm. "Sacrificing all other normal monsters on your field, you can give the equipped monster 1000 extra attack points."

"_That's right, he was there when the card was made…of course he'd know the effect."_ Akina felt stupid for trying to doubt that he'd know what was going on. Looking up though, she smiled. "Your right. My monsters are going to work as a team now." As she spoke, the last traces of the strange dancing monster vanished, being sucked into the black-hole like eye on the sword. Raising it high into the air, the monster let out a squeaky little battle cry as its attack power shot into the sky (1500/1200). "Swordsman of Landstar attack his Dark Rabbit now! Soul Sword Slash!"

Jumping off of the ground with a mighty spring off its stick like legs and odd shaped shoes, the monster flew through the air, swinging the sword downward as it approached the cartoonish looking rabbit. Slicing it completely down the front, the wide eyes rabbit shattered into a million tiny data bits racing away from the scene of the battle.

Akina – 4000 LP  
Pegasus – 3600 LP

"Oh no!" Pegasus cried out in a rather playful way, grabbing the sides of his head and looking back at the night sky. The millions of stars above twinkling as they gazed from afar at the duel. "Such a combo brought down my Dark Rabbit with no effort at all."

"I know he said the game should be fun," Ronin began, cocking an eyebrow at the man's performance, "but is he even taking Akina serious at all?"

"It would appear that is all you had planned to do, yes?" Pegasus brought his hands and his head back down, looking at Akina who nodded affirmatively.

"Yes, I end my turn there." She spoke up, not even looking back down at her cards. _"He's playing some kind of game. This isn't what I was expecting from the creator of this game. I kind of expected powerful, rare and valuable cards combined with incredible tactics. So far, this has seemed far too easy. I can't help but think he is just toying with me."_

"Well let's see what I can do now shall we?" Pegasus spoke, sliding the top card off his deck and holding it up so he could see its face. Smirking he added it to his hand of cards to free up his right hand. "Interesting draw, it'll come in handy, I'm sure. But for now, I'll just flip summon my set monster. Come forth, Dark Eyes Illusionist!"

Racing off of the card resting on Pegasus's duel disk, a dark green light floating into a large puddle in front of him. Taking form, the smoke soon vanished, leaving behind a strange looking, yellow skinned creature with long, curved black marks drawn all down its oddly shaped torso and to the its waist where feet would typically sprout out, a long pointed tail shot downwards. Wrapped around its body was a long, flowing green fabric cap, rushing out to make the appearance more dramatic. Its head was small, perfectly circular, with a large silver eye on it in the shape of the eye of Ra. (0/1400)

"_That's…"_ Akina's eyes were growing wide as she stared down the oddly shaped creature, _"different…"_

"To make up for the lack of attack force my monster has, he can instead prevent you from attacking with one monster of my choice, and I of course choose your Swordsman of Landstar for this effect." Pegasus smirked, watching his monster lift up its two human like hands, covered up in thick red gloves.

Glowing, the middle section of the monsters eye began to send off a ray of light, crashing into the chest of the tiny warrior, freezing him with terror on the spot. His eyes went completely blank, the soul of the monster seeming to have been completely drained out of his little body.

"So how will you counter me I wonder?" Pegasus folded up the five cards he held in his hand, looking at his opponent with a fun-loving look plastered across his face. "I pass this turn back to you."

"Draw!" Akina yelled out, sliding the top card from her deck and adding it to her hand. _"His monster can be easily dispatched, so this seems rather pointless for him to try. He is toying with me, I'm positive now."_

Holding up her hand of cards, she scanned them for the best option, taking it out and slapping it down onto her duel disk.

"I summon to the field now; Petit Angel (600/900), attack mode!"

A small ray of light burst up next to the immobilized swordsman, creating a small pink ball floating in mid air on two stretched blue-feathered wings. A golden ring hovering inches over the monsters head, wile two beady blue eyes stared out happily at the world.

"Petit Angel attack! Destroy his Dark Eyes Illusionist now!" She cried out, sending he small monster racing across the field with such force, a tiny squeal ripped through the air with the monsters force. Crashing into the chest of the monster, the monster ended its long flight with an intense groan.

Moaning in pain, the odd monster grabbed the pink ball in its gut, tossing it out of the way as it curled its arms over its chest, pain ripping at it. Soon, the monster vanished from the field with a ripple in space where it once was. This of course, eliminated the spell the monster had over the tiny warrior, causing him to snap right back to life. Holding up the sword, the monster regained its fighting stature as if it had never left the field.

Akina – 4000 LP  
Pegasus – 3000 LP

"Swordsman of Landstar, attack directly now with Soul Sword Slash!" Akina continued her battle orders, snapping her arm forward as her tiny warrior leaped up, bringing the sword down across the chest of the businessman.

Yelling slightly in pain, Pegasus held his right hand up to his chest where the little monster had just nailed him with the sword. The technology in the duel disks, as always, made the duel seem so much more real. The mere pressure of the condensed holographic image made a sensation of pain.

Akina – 4000 LP  
Pegasus – 1500 LP

"Well done!" Pegasus then yelled, much to the surprise to everyone there. Straightening himself out, Pegasus brushed off his suit, making it centered on his body again. Smiling wide, he looked at Akina who just kind of nodded in response. "What an attack! What flare, what finesse!"

"Thanks." Akina blushed slightly, hiding her face slightly by turning her body, obscuring the view with her shoulder. Reclaiming a mind for the situation, she turned back, making her announcement. "I end my turn."

"But it is time for my counter attack." Pegasus broke in, making Akina jerk her head back with the statement. It almost quelled all her doubts of him toying with her. Placing his hand on his deck, she felt a bead of sweat roll down her cheek, wondering what surprises his deck was going to cough up. "Draw!"

A smirk jumped onto his face as he leaned forward, looking from the image on the card to his opponent.

"You know, as you'll get older in life, you'll have to learn about the way things work. The economic system of the world. So I created this card with the hopes of teaching people how to manipulate economics to their own benefit. I activate the continuous magic card; Spell Economics!"

Sliding the card into his duel disk, Pegasus stood back and watched as the card hologram appeared on the field before him, glowing with a radiant purple light before spitting out a demonic looking book with a large red eye resting on the cover. A deep blue pen sticking out from the rear bindings of the book made it look like someone would use it to keep track of something.

"This card allows me to play magic cards without the need to pay any life point cost to do so." Pegasus continued, motioning to his new book that was resting on his field, the eye darting around as it took in all the sights. "I have done this to get free admission into my favorite world in this crazy carnival of a duel."

"His what?" Reku cocked an eyebrow at all the gibberish that Pegasus was spouting. Watching intently, he observed Pegasus take one of the cards from his hand and slid it into his duel disk, the lights and sounds of the device being set off with the intrusion of the new card.

"Welcome, my dear, to Toon World!" Pegasus cried out, a large green book racing up before his face, spiraling through the air before its pages opened up, spewing out a mess of purple and blue smoke all across Pegasus's field. "Usually costing me 1000 of my life points to enter, this card now is totally free for me!"

"_Is this part of his cartoonish deck I've read about?"_ Reku's eyes widened, hearing the name of the card. _"This could be bad, I've never heard of such a card in my entire life. What could it possibly do?"_

"_What a strange card."_ Likewise, Ronin was thinking, narrowing his brow at the book that now hovered about head level with Pegasus. From inside, like a pop-up book, a dark, gruesome looking town had arisen from the pages, brought to life by the magic of the book. _"It must do something powerful. This Toon deck of his, the rumors were true." _

"The name of your card doesn't really sound to threatening." Akina spoke up, breaking both Reku and Ronin of their thoughts. "Cartoons are fun loving and entertaining. Does this Toon World really post an incredible amount of power?"

"Both." Pegasus spoke up, sliding another card from his hand and slapping it down onto his duel disk. "My monsters that come from the bindings of Toon World are indeed fun-loving spirits that enjoy having a good time, but don't let them fool you," as Pegasus continued to talk, his book closed up, snapping open again a second later to send out another geyser of purple and blue smoke racing into the air. This time though, from the smoke shot out a small ugly green man with a large, gray club gripped tightly in his hands. "My Toon monsters are indeed powerful. Like this one; Toon Goblin Attack Force (2300/0)!"

Landing gently on the field in its little brown moccasin shoes, the cartoon-like goblin smashed its club against the ground before it, causing the, apparently, rubber made mallet to bounce off the pavement and land against its shoulder as its resting place. Patting its large gut, the monster gave a childish laugh, further emphasizing its toon qualities.

"Cute, wouldn't you say?" Pegasus clasp his hands together, looking at the back of his little goblin. "Lucky for you, my Toon Goblin Attack Force must wait a full turn before I am capable of attacking with him. So it's your move."

"Lucky for me it'd seem." Akina spoke softly, but still everyone could hear her. "Draw!" She then announced, much louder, snapping the top card from her deck.

On the field before her, her little knight fell to its knees, the pink floating ball curled up tightly, both of their cards appearing underneath their tiny bodies.

"I shift both of my monsters into defense mode." Akina cried out, moving the two cards on her duel tray horizontal. _"At least this way, my life points will be safe from his monster attacks for a little bit. Maybe I can come up with a plan to combat these…toons…"_ Sighing, she stared at Pegasus's loan goblin monster before looking up at him. "With 2300 attack points, you toon is indeed strong. I'll end my turn now, since there is nothing I can do."

"Well, I should inform you that defending isn't going to help either." Pegasus spoke, a sly smile resting on his face. Sliding the top card off of his deck, he held it to his face before adding it to his hand. "You see, I said my toon's have a special power."

Akina – 4000 LP  
Pegasus – 1000 LP

"By sacrificing 500 life points, my Toon monster is capable of attacking, but because I have Toon World on my field, the attack target is," lifting his hand, he snapped it out, his index finger extended towards Akina, "you!"

"What?!" Akina shrieked, watching the little toon monster began his gallant charge towards her. Wabbling from one foot to the other as he ran across the field, he bounded high up into the air, bringing the large rubber mallet down onto Akina's head, causing the female duelist to fall to her butt.

Akina – 1700 LP  
Pegasus – 1000 LP

Bouncing off of Akina's skull, the small goblin monster flew through the air until it landed back on Pegasus's field, dancing back and forth on its stick-like legs with its accomplishment. A childish cackling noise came racing from the throat of the beast.

"But the fun doesn't stop there." Pegasus announced, sliding another card from his hand into his duel disk. "I get to activate this quick-play magic card then; Sebek's Blessing. A magic card that is only triggered when a monster on my field has attacked you directly. I will be gaining life points equal to the damage I was able to inflict."

Akina – 1700 LP  
Pegasus – 3300 LP

"That's…not….good." Akina said, rubbing the top of her head where the rubber mallet had pummeled her. "That card was perfect for restoring your life points back to a decently high number." Pushing herself off of the ground, Akina stood back up. Brushing herself off slightly from the impact against the earth, she got ready to take her turn.

"Yes, but I'm far from done yet." Pegasus spoke, motioning to his goblin monster who had fallen to his knees, the club held across its body to prevent any attacks from coming at it. "Like the real deal, when my Toon Goblin Attack Force attacks it goes into defense mode afterwards for two turns. But I don't plan on that, since he'd be easily ran over."

Taking another card from his hand he slid it into his duel disk, causing an image to appear on the field before him with a flash of yellow and white light. On it, it showed a blue man coming out of the earth, a red shadow of a cross lying over its body.

"I activate Premature Burial, which typically costs me 800 life points to do so, but my Spell Economics, handy as it is, prevents that loss." Pegasus smiled, watching as a rain of sparks appeared from the image of the card, resulting in the black furred bunny to once again reappear on his field, bouncing with joy to be alive. "I special summon with its effect my Dark Rabbit (1100/1500) once again. This gives me the two sacrifices I need in order to summon my ultimate attack force Toon Monster."

Spewing from the pages of the Toon World book again, the blue and purple fog engulfed the defending goblin and the bouncing bunny, sucking them into the book like a vacuum pulling up dirt. Slamming its covers shut, the book began to spin, streams of lightning shooting out of the top, bottom and side of the book as it twisted through the air.

Blasting open, the book shot out a small, cute, white dragon monster that bounced off the ground once before settling in mid-air, cackling evilly. Its twisted eyes looked around; smirking at it spotted Akina standing on the field with her jaw wide open.

"Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon (3000/2500)!"

"Blue-Eyes…" Reku began, staring intently at the card.

"Toon Dragon?" Sachiko cocked an eyebrow, staring at the little dragon, squirming its worm like body around in mid-air. "How cute."

"But how?" Reku looked over at the other two that were watching the duel. "I didn't realize there was another Blue-Eyes out there."

"You forget, this is Pegasus, the creator of the game. He could make another Blue-Eyes anytime he felt he wanted to." Ronin threw in, looking sternly at the mock Blue-Eyes. "That thing, though, is definitely a rare breed of Blue-Eyes. And this is Pegasus's original, one-of-a-kind deck, so I doubt we'll ever see this card again."

"_If that thing direct attacks me, its all over!"_ Akina's fear was rising at the overwhelming attack power she was now facing down.

"Next turn, my lovely dragon will be able to attack." Pegasus waved his hands outwards, motioning to his still giggling dragon. "But now, it's your turn."

"Draw!" Akina yelled, snapping the top card off her deck. Glaring at its face for a couple of seconds, her eyes flicked back up to the field before her. _"My defending monsters provide no defense against that thing, or any of Pegasus's Toon Monsters. This could indeed get ugly."_ Looking back down as she added the newly drawn card to her other cards she was holding, she examined all of her options. _"I can't just back down though. If there is a chance of fighting back, I think that's exactly what I need to do. I won't…"_ Closing her eyes tightly, Akina fought back her rising fear, keeping it locked deep down. _"I won't embarrass or disappoint you guys. Reku…Ronin…" _

Sliding a card from her hand into her duel disk, Akina felt the device accept the card, pulling it inwards and locking it in place. Streams of rainbow colored lights raced through the duel disk as the hologram materialized at her feet.

"I set one card face-down and end my turn."

"At least you aren't going down without a fight. That's wonderful!" Pegasus slid the top card from his deck and flicked it over to join his previous hand card. "But let's see what you have there. Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon…"

Akina – 1700 LP  
Pegasus – 2800 LP

"…Direct attack!"

Sucking in a large breath of air, the small mock Blue-Eyes turned into an inflated balloon, floating in mid-air. Clamping its teeth shut, the dragon began to smirk, twisting its body forward so that it was facing Akina directly before opening its jaw wide with a start, sending a blast of pure white energy, surging with strands of electricity, blasting forth from deep in its throat.

"Activate my set card!" Akina announced, the holographic image flipping up instantly, being hit instantly by the stream of electrical energy. Absorbing it up, the blast vanished into the narrow depths of the cardboard card. Slowly then, the trap card faded off the field. "Waboku protects me and my monsters from damage this turn." Akina explained, a bit of sweat rolling down her brow.

"Nice move!" Pegasus exclaimed, smirking wide. "I end my turn!"

Crossing his arms, Pegasus closed his eyes and bowed his head slightly

"_This is what it's like to duel for fun again. I had lost my will to play once Yugi and his other self had beaten me. Now though, I feel good."_ Opening his eyes, he watched as Akina began to reach for her card. _"This has been incredibly refreshing."_

"Draw!" Akina yelled, sliding the top card from her deck and holding it up to her face. "Yes! Magic card go: Back to Square One!" After snapping the card forward so that Pegasus could see it, she reached back, stealing one of the cards from her own hand and sliding it into her graveyard slot. "By discarding my Silver Dollar trap card from my hand, I get to return one monster on the field to its owner's deck. I choose, of course, Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon!"

"What!?" Pegasus's arms dropped limply to his side as he watched his dragon begin to warp, bubbling outwards before fading away with a small pop. Looking down, he picked up his card and slid it onto the top of his deck.

"But it won't stop there. First, I shift my Swordsman of Landstar into attack mode." Akina announced, moving her monster horizontal.

Standing up straight on the field, the little warrior monster slashed its black blade through the air, creating a slight, high pitched whistling noise.

"And next, I sacrifice my Petit Angel," Akina picked up the card from her duel disk, causing the monster on the field to vanish in a spray of sparkly lights, "in order to summon my Fairy in the Crystal card (2000/1300)."

"And no further will you go!" Pegasus announced, interrupting Akina before she could say anything more. "I open my set card; Toon Suitcase!"

"Toon…Suitcase?" The four members of Team Zero all spoke at the same time, an equal wave of confusion flowing through their voices.

Pegasus's forgot about set card flipped up, spitting out a cartoon suitcase monster. Large, bobble eyes on top of its 'head', and a set of razor sharp fangs all around the cases opening. Opening its mouth, the monster spat out a stretchy, pink tongue that raced across the field, snatched the card off of Akina's duel disk. Reeling it in, the monster swallowed the card whole, smirking once before vanishing from the playing field.

"Only while I have a face-up Toon World card can I use my Toon Suitcase. It then lets me return one monster on the field back to my opponent's deck, just like your Back to Square One card." Pegasus explained, sliding the trap card into his graveyard slot. "But I give you props for that gallant effort!"

"Well, I'm not done yet!" Akina yelled out, a bit shocked her killer combo was torn apart that fast. "Swordsman of Landstar attack! Soul Sword Slash!"

Racing forward, the little pale skinned monster swiped the blade down the bussnissman's torso, causing he to slid backwards from the shockwave. Grabbing his chest, a loud moan escaped his lungs, reeling from the impact.

Akina – 1700 LP  
Pegasus – 1300 LP

"I'm done with my turn there." Akina announced, sliding her arm across her body. Before her, the Swordsman of Landstar was just making its return trip, landing softly on its feet in front of her.

"Then I go." Pegasus spoke, sliding the top card off his deck and glancing briefly at the Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon before adding it back to his hand. "You've put up an awesome fight, and I'll look forward to seeing how well you do tomorrow." Pegasus began to speak as he slid a card out of his hand, holding it up next to his face. "You are indeed powerful, and a worthy opponent. Don't disappoint me tomorrow out there, got it?"

"Um…I'll do my very best." Akina responded, a bit confused. Looking over her shoulder at her friends, they just shrugged and shook their heads, lost as to what Pegasus's quick change of subject was all about.

"For my turn, I first activate the magic card; Shadow Toon." Pegasus announced, sliding the card he held by his head into the slit on his duel disk. "While I have Toon World on the field, this card can be activated. I get to take the attack points of one of the monsters on your side of the field, out of your life points."

"No way!" Akina yelled back, her eyes growing wide. Jerking her head down, she saw a ghastly shadow forming under the feet of her monster. Racing in a large circle, bouncing out of its perimeter every now and again, trying to break free it seemed.

Finally, a ghastly head emerged from the center of the pool of darkness, its eyes and mouth glowing bright red, but yet, the monster looked incredibly cartoon-like. Shooting out from the pool, the ghost raced into Akina's duel disk, causing it to scream as the life point numbers began to change.

Akina – 200 LP  
Pegasus – 1300 LP

"Then I activate the equipment magic card; Comic Hand!" Pegasus slid one of the cards he held into his duel disk, the image appearing before him with a splash of life in the air. Showing nothing but a large, white gloved hand, the card seemed incredibly basic. Appearing from the square boxed image on the card, a white gloved hand on a spring made of wooden cross-bars, shot out, reaching the other side of the field and grabbing a hold of the little tiny warrior monster.

"_This could be bad…"_ Akina realized, watching as the hand retracted back, dragging her little monster along with it.

"Comic Hand only works while I have Toon World on my field, giving your monster a taste of what it is like to become a Toon! One of my wonderful creations!" Pegasus swooned, watching as the hand threw the little monster inside the pages of the green-backed book. Slamming shut, the book trapped the monster inside while it was being toonified. "Come on Swordsman of Landstar!" Pegasus cried, the book snapping open and an even more cartoonish version of the monster jumped out, slicing the black bladed sword through the air. "And attack your former master!"

Racing forward, the little monster swung the sword down, what appeared to be, far to early to actually hit anything. To everyone's surprise though, the sword began to grow, like a long piece of rubber, whipping through the air and hitting Akina dead square in the chest, causing her to go flying backwards into her friends arms.

Cackling a bit in a very odd tone of voice, the holographic monster, as well as all the other holograms on the field, vanished within moments of Akina's life points hitting zero.

Akina – 0 LP  
Pegasus – 1300 LP

"Akina, are you alright!" Reku exclaimed, a bit louder than he really realized. Smiling a bit weakly, the girl nodded, signifying that she was indeed alright. Just a bit shocked by the shockwave. "Thank goodness."

Pushing herself forward, she stood up straight, brushing herself off. "Yeah, I'm going to be fine." Turning to Pegasus, she smiled warmly. "And thank you for that incredible duel. It was difficult, but I had fun."

"That is what this game is about after all." Pegasus, in his cheerful manner, said as he walked forward, pulling his deck out of his duel disk. The arms coming forward, and separating as the duel disk shut down.

Taking a quick look over the group, Pegasus noticed something on the face of one of the members.

"You look like you have something on your mind Ronin-boy."

"I do." Ronin stepped forward. "Mr. Pegasus, is that really your deck? The legendary deck made on manga-like characters?"

"This Toon Deck is indeed the deck I've worked on for a long time. They mean the most to me." Holding the deck tightly in his hand, Pegasus continued to smile. "The reports from the Duelist Kingdom were not fabricated; indeed, I run a one of a kind deck never seen in circulation. I could never stand to see my lovely babies be abused or tossed aside, not understanding their greatness."

"They seem incredibly powerful to me." Reku chimed in, smiling at the man. "It was such an honor to get to see a unique deck like that first hand."

"It was nothing!" Pegasus exclaimed, cheerfully patting Reku on the shoulder. "I was glad to have a duel with you guys. And I must again thank you for it." He said, turning to Akina. "I've had a bit of a problem dueling since Yugi beat me way back in the Duelist Kingdom. So I wanted to play and regain my fun spirit. And you guys deserved a fun duel to, ever since you risked your hides against an incredibly powerful foe during the actual tournament, just to save us all. And save me at that. Losing to that Hygin fellow did a number on my pride to."

"We had to stop them." Ronin said, clenching his fist. "They weren't exactly what we would call good guys. Twisted mind set. Besides, as it turned out, we actually knew that girl Chime. Or, not her, but we had tangled with her father, who also had the same twisted views as her."

"Really?" Pegasus ushered towards the door, signaling they would walk and talk. "Sounds like you guys have been through a lot in your duel career. Just like the King of Games, Mutou Yugi and his friends and rivals." Walking through the door, Pegasus closed it, causing a click to ring out over the now empty rooftop. "Would you mind telling me all about your travels?"

Once Pegasus's voice faded away, and the sound of feet on metal stairs inside the doorway died out, silence encompassed the roof. Drifting off into the large city of lights. Domino City. A city that soon was going to have a large, incredibly anticipated, set of duels take place in the morning.

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**_Kaiba co. Case File: Duelists: Teams: Team Zero _**

**_Team Zero is a small, three (3) duelist team used in team dueling events. _**

**_ Team consists of: _**

**_::Team Leader :: (Endo, Ronin)   
::Team Member:: (Yamashita, Reku)   
::Team Member:: (Oshiro, Akina)   
::Cheerleader:: (Maeda, Sachiko) _**

**_ Team Details and Accomplishments:   
-The team was formed from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in a local, city wide tournament held to select a team to represent the country at the "World Tournament" (see Tournament Case file #11pc)(mini spec – An amateur ranked tournament for rising duelists to get their names out into the circuits for future tournament references and possible advancement in ranks in the future).   
-The team has only two (2) recognized tournaments in their dueling record, but they are incredibly skilled duelists.   
-The team won the "World Tournament" (see Tournament Case File #11pc) but special notes were created about odd occurrences during the tournament. Nothing further is known as the case seems to have been buried. World Tournament organizer and operator (Hiroshi, Kaito) and Regional Team President (Yoshiharu, Teguchi), overseer of the teams safe travel and record keeper up through the end of the "World Tournament", refuse to make comments about the occurrence or any of the events that transpired.   
-The team went undefeated in "The Tournament of Kings" (see Tournament Case file #03ds)(_**_**Mini spec – a tournament hosted and funded by the Kaiba corp. in partnership with Industrial Illusions (I2))**_**_ being declared the official winners. This tournament was placed under attack by a team wielding a deadly power. Blackmailing the Kaiba co. the tournament was forced to continue as planned, causing many unwanted events to transpire. Kaiba co. has done its best to burry the unwanted details.  
-The team is scheduled to face off against (Kaiba, Seto), (Motou, Yugi) and (Wheeler, Joey) as their prizes for winning the "Tournament of Kings". Postponed due to problems during the actual tournament._**

**_NOTES: This team has some secrets in it that bother me. They have a strange set of cards that were not in my database. The Duel Disk system read the cards, though the team tried to pass them off as: "incredibly well made fakes". My system is flawless; no fake could ever be made to work. I have not seen anything like it since the Egyptian God cards, and the Seal of Orichalcos. _**

-last edited by: Kaiba, Seto-

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	3. Opening Round

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters  
Team Zero: Kings**

3. Opening Round

Gleaming off of a long metal railing, the warm sun began to peak over the horizon on the far-east side of the city, casting its light about the inhabitants that lived there. Domino City was incredibly peaceful in this early morning hour, almost in a state of tranquility if not for the early morning commuters already out dotting the roadways.

But today, many people were out all traveling to the same place. Within the hours to come, many people would flood into the Kaiba co. stadium to witness the legends at work.

* * *

Swinging open the large, thick wooden door, a fully dressed Akina wondered out of her bed room to get ready for the tournament. To her surprised, she saw Ronin had beaten her out of bed, and was sitting at the large square table shuffling his deck. 

"You preparing for today too." She asked, walking over and plopping down in one of the chairs next to him.

"Yeah, something like that." He admitted, not tacking his eyes off of his cards as he shuffled them again. "How 'bout you? Ready for today?"

"Not in the least." Akina smirked; pulling out her deck and fanning it open before her eyes. "But after that duel last night with Pegasus, I do have a bit more confidence in my deck. Plus, I do know for a fact we won't be facing anything like those Toon monsters during this tournament."

"True." Ronin said, setting down his deck. Leaning back in the chair, he crossed his arms and looked at her for the first time since she came out of her room. "But we are going to be facing people who actually could beat Pegasus. That's what got me worried."

"Nothing to worry about." Sachiko's voice flooded into the room as the woman herself walked out of the bedroom. Smiling at Ronin, she walked over and had a seat in a chair next to him. "You guys will be fine."

"Better than fine." Reku slyly spoke, waking out of the other bedroom, strapping the emerald green duel disk onto his arm. "We have to have complete confidence in ourselves or we will fail fast. You, ladies and gentleman," Reku tossed his arms out to his side, throwing his head back, "are looking at the next King of Games!"

"King of Games my ass." Ronin smirked, grabbing an empty pop can off of the table from the night before and tossing it at Reku, hitting him smack dab in the center of his exposed chest.

The four of them had a good laugh.

* * *

Standing on the large square cement stage, slightly raised above ground level, Seto Kaiba crossed his arms. All around him, many people were flooding into the stands. Conversations were merging together, creating a growing hum in the background of the dome. 

"_Soon this waste of my time and money will be over."_ Kaiba complained, closing his eyes as he thought. _"But it will be interesting to test these three's power. They preformed incredibly in the tournament. We'll see just how well they do." _

"Brother!" A voice entered Kaiba's world, causing him to open his eyes as his spiky, black haired little brother came racing up the stone stairs to the platform. Racing across it, he slid to a stop just before the businessman.

"Yes?" Kaiba asked, stern as usual, but not incredibly rude that he was interrupted.

"Everything is prepared for today's matches. And nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. So no problems should occur."

"Good work Mokuba." Kaiba congratulated, looking up from his little brother and back at the crowds filling in the seats.

"You're not worried, are you big brother?" Mokuba asked, looking up at his stern faced brother. "I mean, you are the best."

"No Mokuba, I'm not worried. I'm more curious. These three didn't seem like anything more than growing duelists when I examined them for entry into the Tournament of Kings, but I saw their incredible power. They have to be incredible duelists to use a power that rivals the god cards themselves, as well as take out that accursed seal." Uncrossing his arms, he turned and began to walk to the opposite side of the stage that Mokuba entered on. "I look forward to seeing just how strong their dueling powers are."

* * *

Leaning back against the cold wall of the dome, a young man ran his hand through his long green colored hair, pulling his hand back to shield his eyes from the sun. The deep, golden pools that rested in his head scanned the sky from the shade he himself provided. 

"It's kind of cool to be back in Domino City." He spoke, the words flowing out into the clam, unmoving area.

"Yeah, it is." Came another voice, ringing out from in front of the relaxed man against the wall.

Across a short distance carpeted with a soft, freshly mowed lawn stood a large tree casting its long shadow out in the early morning light. Sitting on the ground next to the base of the tree was a shorter, blond haired man. His hands clasp behind his head creating a pillow to rest his head against, leaning back against the tree. His soft, blue eyes were closed tightly, relaxing.

"Though it was an annoying and tiring flight to get here."

"Too true Kev." Joe Peterson spoke as he pushed himself up from his leaning position against the wall. "And look what we've got here. The men and women of the hour." Smiling stupidly, he pointed to a place behind Kevin, who opened his eyes, leaning out from his natural chair to see what Joe was pointing to.

Up the long cement walkway came their friends from Team Zero, all of them looking incredibly determined to be here, even Sachiko, and she wasn't even dueling.

"Well this is bad luck if I ever saw it." Ronin commented, a chicken-shit grin dawning his face at the sight of the two teenage boys waiting for them. "I wonder what in the seven heavens could have brought the two of you here."

"Five, actually." Joe corrected walking towards the group. They all stopped once they were a decent distance from one another. "Ryokurio, Usami and even Gurabe all came here to watch you guys in your biggest dueling moment ever."

"But no pressure at all." Kevin said, joining the group after jogging over from his place under the tree.

"Right." Reku rolled his eyes. "So, where are those three right now?" He asked, noticing that they weren't around anywhere to be seen.

"Inside already, getting seats for us." Joe answered. "We just wanted to come out here and wish you guys' good luck in there. Do your very best." He thrust his arm forward, extending his thumb high into the air to make his thumbs up.

"Of course we will!" The three duelists yelled back, causing them all to break out into laughter at the mere situation.

The laughter was soothing to them. Calming their tense nerves. Even though nothing was on the line, these duels had the four of them more edgy than a razor blade. Nothing in the past seemed to compare to what they were walking into.

* * *

"Remind me again why I came." An annoyed voice asked his two friends who were sitting right next to him. 

Brushing a lock of long, blond hair out of her sea green eye's path, Usami looked at Gurabe, the one complaining, watching him cross his arms in disgust and leaning back in the chair. Sighing slightly at his complaining, she shook her head and faced forward again towards the large square arena.

"I have no clue. No one forced you, you showed up of your own free will." She replied, a tone of anger sweeping under her voice.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you came because; even though you say you hate them, those guys have grown on you." Ryokurio looked past his sister to the grouchy zombie. "You came to show your support, but your ego is too big to let you say it outright."

"What?" Gurabe sat up, staring at the sandy blond haired man who was addressing him. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard human. I am here to enjoy the duels, since I am a fan of learning all I can about an enemy before destroying them completely. Makes it so much easier."

"Then why did you ask us why you were here, only to pop back with that kind of answer?" Usami accused, turning her head towards the undead man. Knowing she had caught him in his own trap.

Growling, he shook it off, crossing his arms once again and sinking back into his chair. "Whatever."

"Don't get your tuxedo in a twist." Another voice came in. Looking up the three sitting kids saw Joe and, slightly behind him, Kevin standing next to them in the isle. Joe, who was the one mocking Gurabe and his dress attire, plopped down in the vacant seat next to the silver haired man. "We are here to enjoy good duels. We don't need the princess pouting now."

"Exactly." Kevin mocked, sitting down on the other side of Joe.

"…princess…" Gurabe growled, turning his stone gray eyes onto the green haired young man. The look alone made Joe shiver in fear. "Human, I'd not push your luck, or I might enter your dreams, killing you slowly by shooting at you with flaming arrows, each seething with a slow acting poison. Ripping into your hide, slowly but painfully stripping you of your life force while you pitifully run from me in the darkness of your mind, never to escape."

"Can you really do that?" Kevin asked, leaning forward to look past Joe.

"You'd be surprised what I can do." Gurabe sat back, a twisted smirk on his slightly pale lips.

"A lot of things, but not that." Joe sat back to, though a bit shaken by how gruesome that actually sounded, not in the least worried. "You would have done it already when you were our enemy if you could."

"And here I woke up this morning cursing myself for being stuck with brainless humans all day. At least this one has the balls to call my bluff." Gurabe stared at Joe from the corner of his eye before resuming his stare at the stone arena.

"Anywho…" Usami leaned forward, looking at Joe and Kevin. "How are the guys? Are they completely freaked out about today?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Kevin chuckled a bit, leaning forward to rest his head on his hands, his elbows propped up against his knees. "But they should be fine. Nothing is going to go wrong, I hope. But we did give them all your support as well."

"Well, it is such an honor to be able to even step into a ring with one of these duelists. It's any and every duelists dream to one-up the King of Games and take his title, or any of the ranks that these guys hold." Ryokurio said, rushing his fingers through his medium length hair as he spoke. "But these guys didn't get to where they are by accident. They won't be taken down easy."

"If at all." Joe threw in just seconds before the lights in the stadium seemed to cut out, leaving the whole dome in a rusty darkness, just light enough to see still, but to dark to get your eyes adjusted quickly.

A loud clicking noise raced through the darkness as a ray of light, obviously from some kind of spotlight, cut through the air and crashing into the center of the rectangular stage. In the middle of this ray of light stood a large, black suited man with gelled back, greenish hair. In his hand he held a microphone, slowly lifting it so that it was to his mouth, then he began to speak.

"**Ladies, Gentlemen, and Duel Monsters Fans of all ages, welcome to this special day of dueling. The true finals of the Tournament of Kings, once called off due to technical difficulties.**

"**So today, the three incredibly skilled members of Team Zero will get a chance to face off against Mr. Joseph Wheller, Mr. Seto Kaiba, and the King of Games himself, Mr. Yugi Motou!"**

At the sound of the names being spoken, the crown was thrown into a frenzy. Clapping and cheers echoed through the darkness, forcing a moment of pause so that the applause could run its course. Once it began to die down, the booming voice came racing through the microphone again.

"**So without further ado, let's give a warm welcome to them!"**

As announced, another spot light clicked on, pointing towards the duelist entrance of the dome. Walking in slowly, Yugi, Kaiba and Joey made their way towards the stone stage, being followed by the spot light as they went.

Joey was frantically waving to the crowed, soaking up all the cheering that was coming towards them. Yugi waved a bit here and there, a bit embarrassed by how enthusiastically Joey was doing it. Kaiba grunted, crossing his arms and continued to walk in silence.

Once on the stage, another spot light clicked on, again pointing towards the entrance where the duelists would enter.

"**Now, for their opponents for today. Let it be my pleasure to introduce you to the winners of the Tournament of Kings; Mr. Reku Yamashita, Mr. Ronin Endo, Miss Akina Oshiro and the team…uh"** Looking down at a note card he had for a second, he made sure he had what he was saying right. **"…cheerleader Miss Sachiko Meade! Ladies and Gentlemen; Team Zero!"**

The crowd, though not as loud or crazy, still struck up an impressive sounding roar of cheering as the four named people walked through the entrance, looking around at the people in the darkness, all clapping and cheering for them.

"I could get used to this." Ronin whispered in Reku's ear, nudging him softly in the rib cage with his elbow. Turning, he extended his hand up waving to the audience.

"It defiantly doesn't feel bad." Reku replied, also waving to fans as the four of them walked towards the raised cement square dueling ring.

Single-filing out, the four of them walked up the stairs, only to form a line on the opposite of the stage from their opponents. Once there, the booming voice came through the speakers as another announcement was being made.

"**And finally put your hands together in a warm round of applause for one of the men who made this possible, as well as the creator of Duel Monsters himself, Mr. Maximillion Pegasus!" **

More roaring came from the crowd as Pegasus made his way into the dome, accompanied by a third spot light illuminating him. Walking briskly, the red suited businessman walked towards the stage, climbing the stairs and stopping briefly next to Team Zero. Giving them a warm smile as if to say 'good luck' the man continued his journey, making it to the far end of the stage next to Kaiba, Yugi and Joey.

The spotlights then clicked off for a moment, showering the entire ring in darkness once again. Seconds pasted slowly until the lights of the entire dome flashed on once again, temporarily blinding everyone there.

"**And now it is time to set up the matches."** Roland, the announcer, called through the microphone again, gaining attention as everyone's eyes adjusted to the bright lights again. **"Backstage, Mr. Kaiba, Mr. Yugi, and Mr. Joey won the coin toss. This means that they have selected someone to go first, and he will choose his opponent from the opposing team to face. This lucky first duelist is Mr. Kaiba himself!"**

Putting the microphone down to his side, Roland looked at the brown haired man as he stepped forward, narrowing his eyes at the four kids that stood against him. It looked like he was carefully selecting the opponent he wanted, but in the back of his mind he already knew who he wanted to face.

"I'll take this one. Endo Ronin." He said, pointing to the leader of Team Zero with his right hand index finger. "The last one standing in my tournament. He is the one I wish to face." Turning back, the white duster whipped out behind him. Walking slowly, he made his was to the dueling spot on his side of the arena. _"The last one standing must have been the strongest of the three. I wish to test his power more than anything."_

"**And without further delay, Mr. Kaiba has chosen Mr. Endo as his opponent. Now the first match of today can officially commence!" ** Moving to the side of the ring, Roland stood in a square box, exactly mid-way between both duelists.

"I can't believe I'm up first." Ronin looked down at his duel disk resting on his wrist. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he looked up to see Reku sanding there smiling.

"You'll do great. Go out there and show Kaiba what you're made of." He said, walking past him.

Seconds later, Sachiko had wrapped her arms around him. "Good luck out there honey. Do you very best."

"Yeah, good luck Ronin." Akina said, patting him on the shoulder as she walked pasted, followed shortly by Sachiko who finally broke her hold on Ronin.

Sighing, all the pressure pushing down on his shoulder blades, Ronin stood up straight, letting his duel disk hum to life, snapping into duel position for the upcoming match. Down at his waist, he unbuckled a leather pouch attached to his belt, revealing a stack of brown backed cards he was planning to use for today's match.

From his own pocket, Kaiba produced a stack of cards of his own, sliding it into his already activated duel disk. Beeping, the life point counter on the duel disk lit up, counting up from zero to 4000.

Giving his deck a quick shuffle, Ronin also slid the deck into his duel disk, his life point counter mimicking his opponents and counting up to 4000.

Ronin – 4000 LP  
Kaiba – 4000 LP

"**Seems like both sides are ready."** Roland announced through the mic. Slicing his arm down, he pointed directly at Ronin. **"As Mr. Kaiba choose to challenge his opponent, Mr. Endo has first turn honors in this match. You may begin whenever you have drawn your opening hands."**

Nodding in agreement, both Ronin and Kaiba freed the top five cards from their decks, fanning them out in their hands. They scanned over the cards briefly to see what kind of hand fate had dealt them to play with.

"**And now DUEL!"** Roland yelled, swiping his hand across his body, the crown rising up, roaring at the top of their lungs.

"Draw!" Ronin cried out, drowned out by the cheering audience. Sliding the top card off of his deck, he looked at the face, sliding it quickly into his left hand before making any further movements. _"I can't take any unnecessary risks in this match. I must play smart, and I must not waste my life points."_ Ronin thought as he released two cards from his left hand and carefully placed them on his duel tray.

A brown backed card appeared inches from Ronin's foot with a rain of sparks. In front of that, a horizontal turned card appeared, also from the rain of sparks, and produced a slimy, green monster. Crouching down, the scaly beast crossed its arms across its body, tucking its elongated nose down into the pouch it created.

"I set one card face-down, and call my Takriminos (1500/1200) in defense mode." Ronin cried, is monster letting out a mystic, yet gnarly, hissing noise. "This will end my opening move."

"I see." Kaiba stared at the weak monster, considering it to be completely useless. _"Then again, he did set a face-down card. He could very well be trying to pull me into a trap, using that as bait. Well then,"_ curling his lips into a devilish smile, Kaiba released the top card of his deck, _"let's just see what kind of trap your pulling me into."_

Slapping his drawn card down, Kaiba snapped his arms out to the side as a blast of light erupted behind him. From this light raced a large, red, metallic looking beast. Jettisoning forward on its thrusters, the metal dragon hovered down in front of Kaiba, roaring as it whipped its head from side to side.

"My opening card shall be Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600) in attack mode." Kaiba announced as he clenched his fist together before snapping his arm out towards Ronin's defending monster. "Show me what you can do about this! Y-Dragon Head attack!"

Lashing out, the metallic monster stretched its neck as far as it would, snapping its jaw open as wide as it could. From inside the mouth of the mechanized dragon, a light blue bolt of lightning surged forth, cracking across the field like a whip and hitting the Takriminos in the chest, sending it flying backwards over Ronin's head.

Ronin shielded himself from the rain of data bits that followed the explosion of his monster. Looking up, he saw Kaiba's smirk soften a bit, almost as if he was disappointed Ronin had let his monster get destroyed.

"**Mr. Kaiba pulls out a powerful opening move, crushing Mr. Endo's defense instantly!"** Roland called over the roaring crowd, incredibly excited by the start of the duel already.

"_He may still be up to something. With his monster gone, he could have been playing reserved, just to see my opening play. Or I'm giving him far too much credit. Either way, this should be over soon."_ Kaiba contemplated. Pulling two cards from his hand, he slid them into his duel disk behind his red metal dragon. "I set two cards on my field, ending my turn."

"_Two set cards!"_ Ronin's eyes widened at the sight of the two cards materializing at Kaiba's feet. _"This isn't a good thing…"_ Taking a deep breath, Ronin placed his fingers on the top card of his deck, being held in his level duel disk on his left arm. "Draw!" He yelled, snapping the top card from his deck and whipping it out away from his body. "I'll place my Sea Serpent Warrior of Darkness (1800/1500) in attack mode!" Ronin cried out after looking at his drawn card then snapping the said card from his hand and placing it on his duel tray.

Blasting up in front of Ronin, a fountain of light blue sparks trickled down from the sky, producing a large purple armored warrior. Slicing its staff through the air, the monster launched himself off the ground, performing an array of aerial acrobatics before landing again on Ronin's field, twirling its staff in the air a few times before catching it, slamming the metal tipped end into the cement floor.

"Go my monster; destroy Y-Dragon Head with your Ocean Lance!" Ronin cried, thrusting his arm forward. Following orders, the warrior blast forward, swinging its lance down through the air, preparing to cut the metal monster into shreds.

"Open set card!" Kaiba cried out, the face down card flipping up with incredible force as he did. "Shadow Spell ensnares your monster, draining it of 700 attack points, and leaving it completely vulnerable on the field." Kaiba explained, the gum metal chains bursting from the holographic card image, wrapping tightly around the underwater warrior.

Binding him up, the purple armored warrior slowly drifted to the ground in the middle of the ring. Struggling like mad to get free; the monsters energy seemed to be slipping off of him, absorbed by the black chains. (1100/1500)

"Uh oh." Ronin clenched his teeth, watching his monster sway back and forth in the middle of the ring. The crowd was cheering with Kaiba's impressive block, but Ronin was blocking them out, trying to focus on a plan to counter attack. Not coming up with anything, he bowed his head in defeat. "I end my turn."

"Draw!" Kaiba yelled out, snapping the top card off of his deck and adding it to his hand, bringing the count up to four. "I set this card face-down to start with." He said, pulling out the card and putting it into a slot on his duel disk.

A ripple of yellow and white light appeared to his other set card, materializing the recently played card.

"Y-Dragon Head, attack his Sea Serpent Warrior of Darkness now!" Obeying the order from Kaiba, the metal dragon snapped its neck out as far as he could, discharging a blast of electrical energy again, cracking across the field and hitting the monster.

Ripping through the beasts armor, the lightning fried the monster from the inside, causing the roasted beast to let off a plume of smoke. Shattering into small data bits, the heavy chains crashed to the cement floor, sending an annoying clanking sound echoing through the dome. Shattering themselves, the chains, and their trap card, vanished from the field.

Ronin – 3600 LP  
Kaiba – 4000 LP

"_Well this is pitiful…"_ Kaiba groaned, letting his arm fall to his side. "I end my turn there. Take your move."

"Right." Ronin nodded, again placing his hand on his deck. _"This is not going so well for me. I knew Kaiba would be difficult…but this I wasn't expecting!" _ Ronin grinded his teeth, thinking of what he could do to stop Kaiba's assault.

The crowds cheering made him stop, looking around for a brief second at the audience all hooting and hollering for the duel to continue. They had come here to see good duels with the top ranked duelists in the world. He was there, the entertainment.

But he had earned this. He, his team, they had fought hard to get here. Here they were, facing down the best of the best.

"_We have nothing on the line."_ Ronin thought, taking in a deep breath. _"In a duel like this, it's going to do me no good to get too angry or serious. Must keep calm through this, and let my skills guide me. I'm here to have fun."_ Tightening his grip on his top card, Ronin narrowed his brow as a slight smile creased his dry lips. "Here we go. Draw!"

Adding the newly drawn card from his deck to his hand, Ronin did a bit of scheming before raising his head to look at his opponent.

"Alright, here we go. I activate my magic card A Legendary Ocean!" Ronin cried out, sliding the said card into his duel disk's field magic slot. Racing all around him, the massive holographic waves circled them both, trapping them in its endless vortex.

Bursting up behind Ronin was a large stone city, completely submerged under the rising wave.

"With A Legendary Ocean on my field, I downgrade all monsters in my hand by one level, seeing as all my monsters are water." Ronin announced, pulling out a card and slapping it down onto his duel disk. "I summon without tribute; Terrorking Salmon (2400/1000)!"

Blasting out of the incredible waves, a fish twice as long as Ronin was tall leapt onto the playing field, causing a huge splash in it wake. Roaring with might, the fish splashed about above the water, diving down and coming back up at random intervals. Its skin was rusty brown, with two glowing eyes planted deep in his skull. As it swam about, the mighty power of the water infused it with more force (2600/1000).

"Attack my monster!" Ronin cried out, pointing directly at the small machine dragon. "Oceanic Bite!"

"Go…" Kaiba pointed to one of his set cards, flipping up it showered the ring in its bright red glow. "Ring of Destruction activate! Ensnare his monster and kill it!" He cried, the card hologram shooing out a large, metallic ring surrounded with grenades attached on.

Swirling through the air, the ring slid right over the fish's body. Flailing in the air, the fish tried its best in vein to free itself from the destructive device. Seconds later, the grenades began to self-destruct, causing the fish to begin howling in pain.

The explosion that followed shook the dome, followed by the constant shaking of the cheering crowed, all impressed with the maneuver. None of them even seemed to mind that massive amount of smoke the billowed out from the ring and into the stands.

Ronin was shielding himself, waiting for the holographic smoke to pass. Instead, he felt a slight breeze tugging at his clothing, pushing it back. Looking up, he saw the smoke being blown away like a fan. Hovering in front of Kaiba was a large swirling ring, with long green blades.

"Ring of Destruction destroys a monster on the field and deals damage to both players equal to the monsters current attack power. Ring of Defense on the other hand, prevents me from losing life points because of this." Kaiba spoke, the two card combination fading off of the field with their task complete.

Ronin – 1000 LP  
Kaiba – 4000 LP

"Oh…damn." Ronin looked at his field with the smoke clearing. _"Kaiba had it set up to take down whatever I summoned. He is incredibly skilled to have pulled that off. But I'm not out of this yet!"_ Ronin slashed his arm through the air, pointing at the set card on his field. "Open trap card in my battle phase, Call of the Haunted!"

"What!" Kaiba, for the first time in the duel, actually seemed surprised. He hadn't planned on Ronin having a counter to his counter, thus he watched helplessly as the large, tan colored fish emerged from the waves again, flying high in the air above them both before crashing back into the water.

"Call of the Haunted revives one monster from my graveyard to the field." Ronin announced to Kaiba over the roar of the crowd. "I choose my Terrorking Salmon (2600/1000) that you just got through destroying prematurely." Smirking, Ronin pointed directly at the red dragon monster again. "And now you are defenseless while my fish rips through your monster! Go! Oceanic Bite!"

Racing across the field with incredible tail power, the fish monster lunged into the air, swallowing the dragon whole on its return trip to the ground. Splashing into the water, the fish disappeared from sight, even though the water hologram wasn't that deep between the two duelists.

Kaiba was shielding himself from the holographic water that splashed all around him from the attack of the beast. Growling, he glared at Ronin, and eventually, the re-emerged salmon monster.

Ronin – 1000 LP  
Kaiba – 2900 LP

"Hmph." Kaiba grunted, listening to his life point counter click down to the right amount. Letting his arms down, he glared at his smirking opponent, the massive fish monster waiting to do his bidding. _"I underestimated his capabilities on that move. No matter, it's still a matter of trail and error to find out his true strength."_ He smirked, watching as Ronin's gaze fell to his cards in his hand once again.

"I shall set these cards face-down on my field." Ronin announced, pulling out two of his three cards and inserting it into his duel disk. A ripple in the air at his feet appeared a second later, materializing into brown backed cards. "I end my turn there." He then said, looking up at Kaiba once again.

"Draw!" Kaiba yelled out, snapping the top card off of his deck and flicking it up to his face to see exactly what he had drawn. "Rise up, Vorse Raider!" He yelled out, flicking the said card from his hand onto his duel tray.

A tan skinned behemoth rose up in front of Kaiba, sporting a black vest with a design of purple orbs on it. In its hands it held a long lance, sharpened blades at both ends of it. Bearing its fangs on its twisted, demonic face, the monster hissed at Ronin. On top of its head was a spike like headpiece, one spike pointing out in each direction of the monster. (1900/1200)

"Next comes our battle!" Kaiba cried, thrusting his monster forward towards Ronin's large fish monster. "Destroy him with your Blood Hunting Slash!"

Bolting across the field, the demonic beast lunged into the air, preparing to strike its foe when Kaiba cried out again, stirring up even more cheers from the audience.

"From my hand I activate the quick-play magic card; Shrink!" Slicing said card out of his hand, Kaiba instantly slammed it into his duel disk, causing the device to surge with a rainbow colored light as it read the card. Creating a hologram, the card blasted out a ray of light that swallowed the fish whole, causing its body to shrink down to half its original size. "Shrink targets one monster on the field, making its attack power half what it originally was!" Kaiba explained, Ronin looking on in amazement as the demonic monster continued to come down onto the fish.

(Terrorking Salmon 1200/1000 + 200 1400/1000)

"No!" Ronin cried out as the monster landed on the head of the fish, drilling the end of the lance into the fish's skull. The crowd cheering in the background, Ronin smirked slightly causing those who could see him to cheer louder, knowing something was coming.

Instantly, both monsters shattered into a million data bits, racing out across the field and hitting the surface layer of the holographic water before vanishing.

"What happened?" Kaiba asked, narrowing his brow at Ronin who could only point to one of his, now, face-up cards on the field.

"I used my own quick-play magic card to stop you. Order to Charge works by me sacrificing a normal monster on my field, in return, I am allowed to destroy one monster on your field. If I was going to lose my fish, I might as well take your monster down with me."

"Alright Ronin!" His team cried out from behind him, Sachiko jumping slightly of the ground and thrusting her fist into the air.

"Keep this up buddy, your doing great!" Reku yelled, just barely audible to Ronin on the field above the rest of the crowd's roars

"_He survived that round…but he'll get what punishment my deck has in store soon enough."_ Kaiba gloated in his head, sliding one of the cards from his hand out and into his duel disk. "I set one card, ending my turn."

"_I need to draw something here to take advantage of him having no monsters."_ Ronin plotted in his own mind, looking down at the one card in his hand. With a quick motion, he jerked the top card off of his deck and snapped it up to see it face. "I draw, and summon my Aqua Fighter (1500/1200) (1700/1200) in attack mode!"

The monster that appeared this time in front of Ronin was a pale blue skinned humanoid monster standing on bulky, tree like legs. Its arms started out incredibly skinny, but as they moved down, they became oversized; making the beasts fists the same size as his head. His head had only two beady eyes staring out at the world, no nose, no mouth to be seen on it. Long dull spikes came jutting off the back of his head.

Landing in the water, the beast created a large splash before disappearing into the virtual ocean, bobbing up again a second later.

"Aqua Fighter, direct attack!" Ronin order, thrusting his arm out towards Kaiba. "Aquatic Fist!"

"It won't work." Kaiba announced, his face down card flipping up, reveling a large, well carven totem pole. Speakers adorned the wings of a carved eagle at the top, blasting out a high pitch shriek that caused both Ronin and his monster to clamp their hands over their ears. When the shrieking stopped, Kaiba began to explain. "My card is known as Command Silencer. When activated, I negate one attack launched, as well as it lets me draw one card from my deck."

Ronin watched as Kaiba snapped the top card off of his deck, looking at its face. Darting his eyes down, Ronin made a mental note as to the set card he had on the field. With only 1000 life points left to his name, he had to be extremely careful against an opponent like Kaiba.

"I end my turn." He called out, watching his monster splash about as it stood up on top of the surface of the water, pulling its big fists up in a defensive way to take on any attacks launched at it.

"Ronin is doing well against Kaiba." Reku said to the two women that he was standing between from behind his dueling friend. "He started off incredibly rocky, but he's starting to make some good plays. It's held Kaiba back slightly."

"But will it be enough?" Sachiko asked, tugging at his shirt, the excitement of the duel getting her a bit hyper. "I mean, can he seriously turn it around and win?"

"I don't know." Reku sighed, looking over at the girl he was speaking to. "Kaiba has put up some incredible defensive skills. His Shadow Spell, his Ring of Destruction and Defense combo, and that Command Silencer, all of them stopping Ronin dead in his tracks. Plus, his monsters are nothing to laugh at either, especially since he's the only duelist in the world with three Blue-Eyes White Dragons."

"But Blue-Eyes requires two tributes to call to the field." Akina protested, drawing Reku's attention back to the field. "And so far, Kaiba has nothing on the field. Unless he can somehow miraculously pull out Blue-Eyes, I don't think Ronin has to worry about that yet."

"This _is_ Kaiba were talking about." Reku countered, a slight frown pulling at his lips. "He isn't the second best duelist in the world for nothing."

"Draw!" Kaiba yelled, pulling his card from his deck and slapping it down onto his duel tray. "I summon X-Head Cannon in attack mode (1800/1500) in attack mode!" He announced, a blue and yellow humanoid-like robot appearing before him. Floating in mid air on a spiked ball where feet and legs typically would be, the machine swayed back and forth slightly, creating a ripple in the holographic water under it. "Cannon, attack!"

Lowering its cannons that rested on its shoulders, the machine blasted out a slew of red hot energy bullets, racing ever closer towards.

"Open set card!" Ronin yelled, his trap flipping up, causing the energy bullets to fade out of existence seconds before hitting his Aqua Fighter. "Zero Gravity shifts all monsters on the field into a mode opposite of what they are in now!"

Crouching down, both Ronin's and Kaiba's monsters crossed their arms over their body, indicating that they were indeed in defense mode. Beneath the two of them, a horizontal holographic card image appeared.

"Set one card." Kaiba went on with his turn, emotionless to the stop Ronin had just pulled on him. "I end there."

"Draw!" Ronin cried out, sliding the top card off of his deck and adding it to his hand. He knew what he had to do; reaching down and shifting his monster on the field into attack mode. _"When Aqua Fighter destroys a monster in battle, I draw one card from my deck. This is my chance to take advantage. My 1700 attack is enough to beat his 1500 defense."_

Standing up straight, the monster smashed its oversized fists together to show off its incredible power. Crouching down, while still standing on the water's surface, the monster prepared to lunge at its opponent.

"Aqua fighter attack!" Ronin cried out, sending his monsters blasting forward, spraying a stream of water behind him as he went.

"This move should be highly familiar to you." Kaiba announced, slashing his arm through the air. "I activate Magical Trick Mirror! A trap that will take the power of one magic card in your graveyard and allow me to use it."

Behind Kaiba shot up a strange, mechanical looking man with mirrors adorning its body. On the top of its head was a large, pointed black hat like that a magician would wear, and in its hand for a wand, was a hand mirror, in which was a reflection of one of Ronin's magic cards he has used previously in the duel; Order to Charge.

"By using Order to Charge, I am able to sacrifice my X-Head Cannon in order to destroy your attacking monster." Kaiba said, watching both monsters on the field shatter into a thousand data bits. Leaving the field completely clean save the large ocean surrounding them.

"_That's not good."_ Ronin growled, sliding his Aqua Fighter into his graveyard slot. _"Using my own card trick against me. Kaiba really is one of the best there is."_ Without missing a beat, Ronin slapped down another card from his hand horizontal on his duel disk. "I defend with this monster, ending my move."

"_The kid's skills are impressive. He's done well since he actually started playing."_ Kaiba pondered, looking at his freshly drawn card. "I activate Card of Demise, allowing me to draw cards until I have five in my hand, and in five turns, I must discard my entire hand."

With an impressive display of hand skills, Kaiba snapped four more cards off of his deck, glanced over them, flipping one specific one out and sliding it into his duel disk without revealing the contents of the other three he held.

"I've also drawn Pot of Greed, allowing me two more cards from my deck to my hand." Again, drawing cards off his deck, Kaiba fanned out his hand to reveal his six cards to himself. "From there it's the magic card Polymerization, fusing together in my hand three of my mightiest beasts; the Blue-Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500)."

A pillar of light erupted from behind Kaiba, giving life to what was one of the most feared monsters in the entire game today. The large white scaled dragon roared manically with all three of its dragonic heads, at the ends of the long, stretch out necks coming off of its body. Flapping its mighty wings, the beast stayed a float, high above the field and in clear view of the cheering audience. (4500/3800)

"The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" Kaiba bellowed, his dragon again roaring, pleasing the crowd endlessly. "Attack! Kill his set monster now with your Ultimate Burst Stream!"

Beams of pure white, electrical energy came bursting from between the razor sharp teeth of the three dragon's heads, forming into a large ball at the head of a stream of energy, crashing into the face down card, incinerating it instantly.

Inches from Kaiba's foot appeared a brown backed card as the businessman inserted a card into his duel disk. "I end my turn here by setting this card face down."

"_Blue-Eyes…Ultimate Dragon…"_ Ronin bit his lower lip, looking at the incredible monster the hovered over his opponent. _"Kaiba's most famous monster is facing me down right now. But, I have a way to deal with it… I hope,"_ looking down at the single card in his hand, his eyes narrowed, _"I just need to draw the one card."_ Placing his fingers on his deck, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, freeing it from the clamp of his duel disk and holding it up. "I draw…"

Slowly, opening his eyes, Ronin saw exactly what he had drawn come into full view. A smirk creased his face as he began to reach for the one card he held in his left hand.

"To start my turn I will play my magic card; Silent Doom, allowing me to special summon one normal monster from my grave to my side of the field in defense mode." Appearing on its horizontal turned card as Ronin slapped the card onto his duel disk, the Takriminos (1500/1200) (1700/1200) appeared again. "And I send it to the graveyard in order to call out my favorite monster. Come forth; Levia-Dragon – Daedalus!" (2600/1500)

Crashing through the surface of the holographic ocean, that large, blue skinned serpent monster swallowed up the tiny beast that had been used as a sacrifice for it as it passed. Racing high into the air, the incredible beast snarled as it made its impressive entrance, diving back into the holographic water, disappeared from view for a few seconds before reemerging seconds later in front of Ronin. (2800/1500)

"This, Kaiba, is my soul card." Ronin began, praising the serpent monster that was resting on his side of the field. "I put my soul into this card, and like-wise this card trusts me fully as a duelist. With it, I have won many a duels. But this has to be by far the most impressive thing the two of us have ever tried to do together."

Holding up his duel disk, Ronin smacked the side of it lightly so that the field magic card slot opened up, revealing his Legendary Ocean card.

"Daedalus's effect activates, by sacrificing a field magic card named Umi I am able to destroy all cards on the field but Daedalus. My Legendary Ocean card's name is counted as Umi, so it's a legal target to use." As he declared his monster's power, he grabbed the field magic card, sliding it out and letting the slot close. "Go, wipe the field clean my beast!"

Diving into the water yet again, the monster left behind this time a massive whirl pool, growing at an incredible pace, soon consuming all the holographic water in the ring, as well as the stone city that had rested behind Ronin for the duel.

The field was engulfed in this massive torrent for a second before vanishing off the field, all of the water becoming a huge cloud of steam that drifted upwards towards the top of the dome. Though Ronin was surprised to see that his dragon wasn't the only thing left on the field as he had previously predicted it would be. Resting on Kaiba's field was a strange, purple and green machine with a large, ruby colored lens in the front.

"I activate my face-down card; Interdimensional Matter Transporter." Kaiba cried out over the still incredibly loud audience. "With its power, I was able to save my dragon from yours, removing it from play until the end of this turn."

"_His set card!"_ Ronin realized, watching the device fade off the field. His eyes wide, his eyes fell to the two empty hands he held up. _"Without the ocean card, my Daedalus is only 2600 attack points, meaning I can't wipe out Kaiba's remaining life points. And by next turn his Ultimate Dragon will be back. At 4500, it has more than enough attack points to wipe me out. There is nothing more I can do…I've lost."_

Sucking in the reality that he lost, Ronin sighed, holding out his hand.

"I gave my best shot though, Daedalus, attack Kaiba directly! Torrent Rage!" Bellowing slightly, the beast opened its mouth, blasting out a stream of water that instantly crashed into a braced Kaiba, soaking him in the holographic flood.

Ronin – 1000 LP  
Kaiba – 300 LP

Nodding his head, Ronin accepted that was all he could do. "I end my turn there."

"Good." Kaiba thrust his arm into the air, the white scaled dragon appearing again over head from a swirling white light. "With that, my dragon returns, and," moving his arm down, Kaiba slid the top card off of his deck as he was talking, "he gives me all I need to win this. Blue-Eye Ultimate Dragon attack Levia-Dragon – Daedalus now! Ultimate Burst Stream!"

From its three mighty jaws, the beast blasted out stream after stream of electrical energy, crashing into the body of the serpent monster, causing it to vaporize instantly from the intensity. Continuing on, the blast crashed into Ronin, sending him flying off of his feet and landing on his back side in the ring.

Ronin – 0 LP  
Kaiba – 300 LP

As the dragon disappeared from the field, the crowd was almost completely crazy with yelling and cheering. They had just witnessed an awesome duel, and got to see some incredible skills. Though many had come to see Kaiba duel, there was no lack of cheering for Ronin either. A large group of them had even started chanting for him.

Standing up, Ronin waved to the crowed before being met on stage by Reku, Akina and Sachiko, all four of them going into a group hug.

"You did amazing out there!" Akina praised.

"Yes, you did!" Reku agreed, rubbing the top of Ronin's head, messing up his hair.

"Thanks guys." He spoke back, laughing from the sudden burst of attention he was getting. "I isn't easy being up here facing them. But it sure was fun."

"_Look at them. They act as if he won the duel. He did surprisingly well though. I thought he was going to collapse after the first couple of rounds."_ Kaiba smirked a bit, turning and walking down the stone stairs that led to where Joey, Yugi and Pegasus stood against a wall, watching Kaiba duel. Leaning back against the wall, Kaiba crossed his arms, getting comfortable for the next match.

"**Ladies and Gentlemen,"** Roland began to announce the second the crowds cheers had died down slightly, **"the first match, of today's rounds, winner is Mr. Seto Kaiba!"** The crowed began to applaud at the sound of the winner's name. **"And from here, let's continue with the matches to keep things rolling."**

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**_Kaiba co. Case File: Duelists: Teams: Team Zero: Endo, Ronin   
Kaiba co. Case File: Duelists: Single Duelists: Endo, Ronin _**

**_ Name: Endo, Ronin   
Age: 17   
Sex: Male   
Team Affliliations: Team Zero   
-- (if applicable) Position: Leader   
Company sponsor: N/A   
-- (if applicable) Position: N/A   
Deck: Water   
Deck Style: Effects, Beatdown   
_**

**_Bio: Ronin won position of Leader of Team Zero after coming in 1st place in a city wide tournament held in his home town. His team mates consist of two (2) members and one (1) extra member: Yamashita, Reku. Oshiro, Akina. And Meade, Sachiko. (respectively). Ronin's deck is comprised of many Water Attribute monsters, focusing their powerful attacks with the deadly effect of Levia-Dragon – Daedalus._**

**_Rarest/Trump (recorded) cards:   
-Levia-Dragon – Daedalus: (ATK:2600/DEF:1500/Star:7/Attribute:WATER/Type:Sea Serpent):_** **_By sending "Umi" on your side of the field to the Graveyard, destroy all cards on the field except this card._**

**_-Water Dragon: (ATK:2800/DEF:2600/Star:8/Attribute:WATER/Type:Sea Serpent):_** **_This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by the effect of "Bonding - H2O". While this card is face-up on the field, the ATK of FIRE monsters and Pyro-Type monsters become 0. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon 2 "Hydrogeddon"s and 1 "Oxygeddon" from your Graveyard. _**

**_-??_** **_Oracles Rage Incarnate Seal of Power - Sapphire Crystal ?? (??magic??): -specs on this card are unclear-._**

**_NOTE: Ronin, like the other members of his team, hold some incredibly strange crystal-like cards. My satellite couldn't pick up the exact wording of it. There is something different about him and his team, holding such power._**

-last edited by: Kaiba, Seto-

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	4. The Inner Might, The Outer Force

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters  
Team Zero: Kings**

4. The Inner Might, The Outer Force

"**Ladies and Gentlemen,"** Roland began to announce the second the crowds cheers had died down slightly, **"the first match, of today's rounds, winner is Mr. Seto Kaiba!"** The crowed began to applaud at the sound of the winner's name. **"And from here, let's continue with the matches to keep things rolling."**

All of Team Zero made their way off of the stage in a big group, jumping to the ground and walking back towards the wall where they would stand to watch the next round.

"**Now, Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Endo will talk with their respective teams, and randomly choose their next competitor. Do note, don't come onto the stage until I have given the word."**

"Oh, alright." Ronin nodded to Roland who was looking directly at him for confirmation. Turning back to his small group, he looked at each of them. "Guys, its incredible being up there and facing off against such powerful opponents, no matter the outcome. Just go up there and do your best."

"Yeah, you looked like you were having a lot of fun." Akina chimed in, rubbing Ronin on the top of the head again, messing up his hair even worse.

"Alright Akina, would you like to go next." He smirked, running his fingers through his hair to straighten it out.

"I'd love to." She spoke back.

"**If both teams are ready."** Roland announced through the microphone, looking back and forth getting a nod from all the people standing on the side lines. **"Then the next round can officially begin. Teams, please send up your next duelists."**

Taking a deep breath, Akina moved past the group and began to climb up the stairs. As she did, she saw instantly who her next opponent was going to be. Walking up his own set of stairs, the blond duelist in a white and blue T-shirt made his way to the stage. Akina was to face off with Joey Wheeler.

In her hand, she held her stack of cards for a deck tightly. Sliding it around in her right hand, she got it into a position and began to shuffle it, making sure that it had the cards mixed around good.

Joey was also shuffling his deck, a child-like smirk on his face as he saw the cutie he was up against. Blushing slightly, he slid his deck into his activated duel disk, causing the device to hum to life, the life points shooting up.

"So you must be Akina, the only female member of Team Zero." He spoke, rubbing his index finger under his nose as he did. "It's a pleasure to get to meet you face-to-face like this. This should be a fun duel."

"Yes, I hope so too Mr. Wheeler." Akina spoke back, letting his duel disk snap into place. "I am honored to get to meet you too."

"Please, Joey is fine." He said as he slid his fingers over the top card of his deck. "No need to get so formal, even if I _am_ the great Joey!"

Akina couldn't help but giggle at that line, lightening the tension between them.

"**Alright, if both competitors are ready, then let's get the second match of today underway. Mr. Joseph Wheeler will face off against Miss Akina Oshiro!"** Roland was met by another slue of cheers and roars from the crowd. **"And like before, the challengers from Team Zero will get first turn honors!"**

"Alright." She exclaimed, snapping her deck into her duel disk and pulling off a chunk of cards for her opening hand. Joey mimicked her, sliding his opening hand off of his deck.

"Duel!" They both yelled, assisted greatly by a simultaneous yell from the crowd.

Akina – 4000 LP  
Joey – 4000 LP

"So Akina faces Joey huh?" Reku said with a gulp. "That means…I am the one facing Yugi…"

"Yeah." Sachiko laughed, smacking Reku on the back. "What luck you have going up against the King of Games himself."

"Don't remind me." Reku said, pulling out his deck and gripping it tightly in his hand.

"Draw!" Akina yelled out, drawing everyone's attention to her again. Anxiously anticipating the start of this match.

Sliding the card she drew into her hand, she carefully studied all six of her cards, making sure she knew exactly what she had to work with. Even though she was going to have fun dueling, she still didn't want to make any screw ups. She would never forgive herself having come this far not to fight her hardest.

"Here we go!" She called out, sliding one of the cards from her hand and slapping it down horizontally on her duel disk. Before her, in a rush of rainbow colored sparks appeared a small snake like dragon, lemon yellow in color. Curling up on its card hologram, the monster snuggled itself into the tightest ball it could. "I start by summoning my Petit Dragon (600/700) in defense mode. And laying this card face-down as well." She spoke as she slid the card into her duel disk, directly behind the horizontal monster. "That ends my turn."

"Draw!" Joey called out, sliding his sixth card into his hand. Smirking a bit, he grabbed the first thing he saw, slapping it down onto his own duel disk. "Alright! For my opening move I'll call out Axe Raider!"

Instantly a young, yellow armored warrior leapt onto Joey's field, swinging a small hand axe through the air to display his skills. Landing with a clunk, the monster began to groan in a deep voice, staring at the young dragon monster from beneath his helmet. (1700/1000)

"Axe Raider go!" Joey cried out, whipping his arm forward as he shouted his command. The crowd cheering to back him, he sent his monster gallantly rushing into the fray.

"No!" Akina cried out, watching as the axe stopped instantly before colliding with the cute, bundled up dragon monster. "My trap prevents you from harming him! Silver Dollar stops attacks against a monster of 1000 or less for this turn."

"Nice save." Joey remarked, flicking his thumb under his nose for a second. Taking another card from his hand he slid it into his duel disk behind his monster. "From there I'll just set up this face-down card and end my turn." The set card materialized instantly behind the now resting warrior.

"Draw!" Akina cried out, sliding the top card off of her deck, instantly sliding it into her duel disk. "I set this card face-down to start with." Shimmering, the air rippled like a rock thrown into a silent lake surface, seconds later popping out a hologram of the set card. "Next I shift my Petit Dragon into attack mode!" She cried out, turning the card on her duel disk to indicate offensive position.

Uncurling itself, the little comic dragon revealed its soft, brown underbelly, smiling a wide ear to ear grin. Almost the instant the dragon came out, a large green bordered card materialized behind him.

"Magic card: Secret Pass to the Treasure!" Akina announced, watching as the holographic hole appeared inches before her monster. A literal tunnel in the floor of the solid concert dueling stage, leading directly to an opening that materialized inches behind Joey. "This card allows a monster on my field of 1000 attack or less to direct attack you this turn, even if you have monsters on the field." She explained, pointing towards the hole in the floor. "Go my dragon!"

"Say what?!" Joey's eye bulged, instantly turning around to see the dragon, who but seconds before disappeared down the virtual hole, floating right in front of his face.

"Attack directly!" She called out, causing the dragon to open its mouth, showering Joey directly in the face with a slew of flames, causing the blond haired duelist to fall backwards, landing on his butt.

Akina – 4000 LP  
Joey – 3400 LP

Diving back down the tunnel, the dragon reappeared seconds later on Akina's field, causing the hole it just traveled through vanish completely. Grinning still, the dragon almost seemed to laugh at Joey who bounded back to his feet, rubbing off his face.

"I'll summon Flame Dancer (550/450) then in defense mode." Akina announced, slapping a new card down onto her duel disk. "Ending my turn."

Sitting on its own card, a small blue tiki-like man appeared. Flames burning brightly in torches the monster held in its hands and on top of its own head. Rhythmically moving its feet back and forth, the monster gave an impression of dancing.

"Ok then, it's my move." Joey announced, placing his hand on the top card of his deck. "Draw!" Snapping it off, Joey whipped it up to see its face. "I'm still in this!" He declared proudly as he slapped the card down onto his duel disk. "Come on out; Panther Warrior! (2000/1600)"

Blasting off of the card, a ray of light jerked its way through the air, launching out an ink black monster, landing on its hind paws. The panther stood up on two legs, holding a mighty saber in its clutched. Across its torso an emerald green breast plate was the only form of armor the feline warrior had, sans the long flowing green cape that waved out behind him.

"Here we go!" Joey cried out, slashing his arm forward. "Axe Raider, attack her Petit Dragon now!"

"Trap card activate: Guilty Conscience!" Akina cried out, slashing her arm through the air. "My trap prevents an attack against monsters less then 1000 attack points, ending your battle phase. Then it continues by shifting all monsters you have on the field into defense position."

Kneeling down, Joey's two warrior monsters crossed their shiny weapons across their bodies, the holographic cards emerging beneath them to show defense position.

"Wow…um…nice move." Joey watched helplessly as his monsters became vulnerable. Sighing slightly his head bobbed down, his eyes growing bland. "Ah man. Alright, I end my turn."

"Draw!" Akina cried out, pulling her top card off of her deck and glancing at its face. _"So far so good."_ She thought, picking up one of the cards on her duel disk. "First, I shift Petit Dragon to defense mode again."

Curling up into its ball, the dragon fell down on the field, landing softly in the open grip of the holographic card for it.

"And I pull out Jerry Beans Man!" Akina yelled out, slapping the yellow bordered card down onto her duel disk.

Racing up in a beam of light, the yellow colored bean soldier flew through the air, crying out in a high pitch, squeaky voice as it did, swinging its very tiny sword (more of a dagger) around. Landing on the field on its bootie covered root-feet, the monster held up a little shield with a picture of a yellow jelly bean on the front. (1750/0)

"Next I'll set this face-down as an extra precaution." Akina said, sliding one of the two remaining cards in her hand face-down. Flashing to life before her feet, the card hologram appeared to add an extra layer of protection to Akina's move. "Now Jerry Beans Man, attack his Axe Raider now! Bean Sprout Slash!"

Squeaking again, the little bean warrior began to charge forward, waving it's sword around in a large circle above its head as it went. On its short legs, the monster moved incredibly slowly across the ground.

The scene actually made many people in the audience begin to laugh. The little tiny warrior charging in to fight things that, when standing up straight, he came but only to their knee caps.

But gallantly, the monster charged into battle, almost making it to the armored warrior he was order to strike when Joey called out he was countering.

"No bean will one-up me. I open my set card Magic Arm Shield!" Lifting up, the set trap card blasted out a beam of light that convulsed on the left arm of the Axe Raider. A pure white armored shield appeared on its arm, glistening in the light of the arena. "This card allows me to take one of your other monsters on the field and use it as a wall against your attack."

Opening in the center of the shield, a small trap door swung its doors wide to the world. From inside this little hole in the armor, a large criss-cross of bars shot out with large, suction cups at the even end. Extending out across the field, the cups clamped down around the little yellow ball monster that was defending itself on Akina's field, dragging it off of its card and back towards Joey's field.

Then suddenly, the shield, the extension arm, all vanished within a ripple in the air. The little dragon that was in its clutched fell down, landing on the cold cement ring inches before the yellow bean solider, who in his blind attack, was charging in with its eyes squeezed shut. Swinging the sword down, the monster cut the little dragon in two, causing its data to splash out into the air with its destruction.

"I block the attack of your Jerry Beans Man with your own Petit Dragon." Joey smirked slightly, rubbing his index finger under his nose again. "Consider that payback for that little roasting he gave me."

Looking down disappointed, the little bean finally saw his betrayal to the team, slowly turning and walking back across the field towards Akina. Its downcast gaze lifted slightly to look at Akina, who went from watching her opponent sliding the used card into his graveyard slot, to looking down at her little monster. Smiling warmly, the monster knew it had been forgiven, smiling back and beginning to skip across the field back to Akina.

"I end my turn then." Akina spoke, looking up at Joey once again.

Placing his hand on the top card of his deck, he snapped the top card off and whipped it around to his face. "Draw!" Smirking at the card, he reached down, lifting his Panther Warrior card off of his duel tray and sliding it into his graveyard slot. "I'm making a single sacrifice to summon out one of my toughest monsters. Come on out; Jinzo! (2400/1200)"

"Jinzo!" Reku's eyes widened at the name of the monster. Having one in his own deck, he knew extremely well just how powerful the said monster was. _"This doesn't look good for her…dammit…"_ Cursing under his breath, he just wished there was something he could do to help her against that monster.

"NO! Wait!" Akina cried out, stopping Joey from actually laying the card onto his duel tray.

"What? Why?" He looked quizzically at her, cocking an eyebrow. "Jinzo is impervious to traps, so your little set trap can't harm him, you know."

"I know Jinzo better then you think." Akina smiled wide, hitting the button on her emerald green duel disk. "And I actually do have a trap that can stop Jinzo. You see, my boyfriend owns one himself, so I'm very familiar with its workings, but in our talks, it's also incredibly obvious what its weakness is.

"Jinzo stops traps while on the field, but not before he gets there. This card does that for me." Akina pointed to her card, showing a road behind a large wooden fence, being blocked off. A large red circle with a diagonal bar through it was across the entire image of the card. "I activate Forbidden Way! A trap that is letting me negate the summoning of a level 5 or higher monster, removing the threat from play."

"No way." Joey looked down at the helpless card in his hand, looking back up at Akina. The trap card vanished from the field as she slid it into her graveyard slot.

"Not only does it let me stop a summoning of a powerful monster, but I get to choose one of my own from my deck and add it to my hand." She announced, grabbing her deck and freeing it from the duel disk. Fanning it open, she gazed over the cards faces before coming to a stop on one. Sliding it out, she flipped it over for Joey to see. "I am choosing my Fairy in the Crystal card, a level 6 monster."

"So she gets a powerful monster while I lose mine. Just great." Looking down, Joey grabbed one of his cards and slid it into his duel disk. "I'll set this one card then before moving my Axe Raider back to attack mode."

As the set card appeared one the field, the red and yellow armored warrior monster stood up, stirring the axe around in the air as it did.

"Chop down Flame Dancer!" He commanded, sending the monster charging across the field with a mighty stride. Snapping the axe back over his head, the monster leapt into the air, coming down inches before the monster and snapping his hands forward. The axe cut clean down the center of the monster, causing it to burst into a million tiny data bubbles that blasted outwards from the following explosion.

Retracting his weapon from the flames and ashes, the Axe Raider hopped back to Joey's field in one big leap. Grunting as he landed as well as sent out a clanking sound as his metal boots hit the cement floor.

"Your move now." Joey called out, letting his arms drop to his side.

"Draw!" Akina yelled out, snapping a card from her deck off and whipping it around until she was looking directly at it. Looking up, she surveyed the field one last time. _"My Jerry Beans Man is 50 points stronger than his Axe Raider. I could just attack it and take it out. But he knew that last turn when he shifted it to attack mode, so his set card most obviously is a trap set up to stop me."_ Looking down at her hand, her eyes focused on the card in the middle of three. _"I have to take this chance and play Fairy in the Crystal!"_

Lifting up her duel disk horizontally, she swiped her hand across the surface of the duel tray, gathering up the only monster there. Holding out the yellow bordered card, she smirked at Joey before depositing it into the graveyard.

"I sacrifice Jerry Beans Man in order to call out my Fairy in the Crystal!" She yelled, slapping the said card onto her duel disk.

Materializing behind the tiny bean soldier, the holographic card with an image of a woman imprisoned in a crystal appeared. A huge wind shot up from the card image, sucking in like a vacuum. Once it had the tiny bean soldier in its vortex of wind, the monster didn't stand a chance, vanishing completely in the narrow confines of the holographic card.

With a burst of energy, the card transformed, taking shape into a large floating crystal. Inside the crystal hovered a beautiful, pointy eared girl with long flowing hair wrapping around her body. (2000/1300)

"Her effect activates!" Akina cried out, sliding her hand across the top of her deck. "When she is summoned to the field, I discard from the top of my deck cards equal to the number of free monster card zones I have. In each zone then, a token shall be made." As she spoke, the four cards she grabbed from her deck were slid right into her graveyard slot. Since the Fairy in the Crystal was directly in the center of Akina's field, two large carven statues appeared on both sides of it, filling up her field with five monsters. "My Crystal Fairy Token's (500/500) are summoned in defense mode."

"_So she swarms the field._" Kaiba thought, watching the duel unfolding before him. _"Even an amateur like Joey is doing well enough in this duel for me to see what I want to see. That Ronin kid proved my theory that they wouldn't use those god-like gemstone cards. I had a feeling they'd pull a Yugi-like stunt on me and not want to use incredibly powerful cards unless it is needed."_

Narrowing his deep blue eyes, Kaiba looked from the dueling woman, down to the three people standing behind her, also watching the duel intently.

"_I'd love to know where they got such power…"_

"Akina's ace monster!" Ronin smirked, jerking his arm back at the sight he was looking at. "That should give her an edge over Joey. But…"

"He did set a face-down card." Reku finished Ronin's sentence, not taking his eyes off of the field. "She will have to be careful. Who knows what he set."

"I'm just impressed how she stopped Joey from using his Jinzo, and got her Fairy in the Crystal in such an impressive move." Sachiko threw in, resting her hand on Ronin's shoulder as she, also, refused to take her eyes off of the duel.

"This _is_ Akina we are talking about." Reku, finally looking away, stared at Ronin and Sachiko. "I knew she could do it. She is a strong duelist after all."

"Fairy in the Crystal attack his Axe Raider!" Akina commanded, slashing her arm across her body as she did. Responding to the command, the monster began to spin its outer crystal shell, faster and faster, until it started to kick up a small twister around it.

"Hold on!" Joey cried out, his set card flipping up as he did. "This isn't going to be so easy for you. I activate my set card; Graceful Dice! A quick-play magic card that will allow me to increase the attack points of my monster by 100 points times the number I roll on my die."

"_His legendary chance play..."_ Akina realized, watched as the green colored card spit out a tiny fairy like monster clutching tightly onto a big furry, blue die.

"Time to see my luck. Go dice roll!" Joey whipped his own arm across his body, signally for his little man to toss the dice. As he did, it collided with the cement arena, bouncing a few times before landing, three black dots facing up. "I've rolled a three, meaning that we will kill each other." Joey looked up, watching his monster gain the attack and defense points in accordance to the magic card. (2000/1450)

Winding back his arm, the monster let lose, throwing the golden axe it held towards the spinning crystal monster. With incredible accuracy, the axe slammed into the side, embedding itself deeply into the glass-like shell.

Screaming, the fairy monster inside the giant crystal began to clutch the sides of her head, frightened by the sudden weapon. Seconds latter, the monster self-destructed, sending razor sharp fragments racing across the field, sticking deeply into the hide of the Axe Raider himself. Screaming in pain as well, the monster stumbled backwards before exploding himself.

The crowd went into a hysterical uproar at the excitement they were witnessing. Clapping, cheering and hollering, they watched as the inky black smoke rolled across the field from the duo of explosions, only to subsided a moment later showing both duelists staring at one another, smiles on their faces.

"_This is still incredibly fun. I'm pushing at my limit, and he's stopping me. I need to push harder it seems." _ Akina pondered, looking down at her hand for a second before looking back up. "I end my turn there." She cried out over the fans, making Joey nod in acknowledgment.

"Of course. Draw!" Sliding a fourth card from his deck, he surveyed what he was holding for possible combos. Not seeing much, he grabbed half of the cards, pulling them out and moving them towards his duel disk. "I set this face-down." He began, sliding a card into a slit on his duel disk.

Energy flushed through the device as the card was read, materializing the appropriate card hologram on the field before him. Without hesitation, Joey slapped down the other card onto the surface of the duel disk, causing it to surge with energy again as it read the new card.

"And I summon Alligator Sword (1500/1200) in attack mode!" Whipping his arm up, Joey motioned in the arrival of his green, scaly warrior as it burst from its holographic card image, landing on the cement ground. Its red and black armor clanked as its body jerked to the sudden halt. "Slice down one of her little statues now!"

Hissing like a snake, the monster began to charge across the field. Raising its sword high over its head, the silver and black blade gleamed in the light of the dome, swinging down it didn't even take any damage as it carved effortlessly through the carved angel statue produced by Akina's monster. Retracting its sword, the monster watched the token fade out of existence before hopping back to Joey field, smirking slightly with its fanged mouth.

"I end my turn there." Joey cried, allowing Akina to draw her next card and add it to her growing hand.

Looking at it for a second, she looked back up at Joey. "I've got nothing this turn. I end."

"Really?" He looked slightly stunned, expecting her to at least put something on the field. "Well, alright then. My move, draw!"

With ease, his top card was freed from his deck, stared at by his knowledge seeking eyes, and then placed face-up on his duel disk.

"I start this turn summoning Gearfried the Iron Knight." He announced as the black armored, outlined with lovely shiny silver, monster appeared before him, next to his lizard warrior. Along his right arm was a large, silver colored blade, and a matching black shield on his left arm. Face completely obscured from view by a full-head helmet. (1800/1600) "Attack mode! Go my two monsters! Take out some of her tokens now!"

Without hesitation, the two warriors leapt into the air, wielding their sharpened weapons behind their heads until the time was right to thrust them forward, slicing two more of Akina's tokens perfectly in two.

"You've triggered an effect I don't think you planned to!" Akina cried out, startling Joey who was proud of his accomplishment until she said that. "When two of these tokens are taken out in a single turn, I am allowed to add any magic card from my deck to my hand that I want. This sacrifices my draw phase, but it's worth it."

Sliding out her deck, Akina fanned it out, finding the card she wanted almost instantly. Grabbing it, she flipped it around for a second so that Joey could confirm it to be a magic card. Sliding it into her hand, she began to shuffle her deck before returning it to her duel disk.

"Alright, I end my turn then." Joey shrank back some, a bit disappointed he let his opponent get something. Rubbing the back of his head of blond hair as he looked away, towards the cheering fans for a second.

"I can't draw because of the effect of my tokens, but I don't need to."

Taking the card she had gotten, she slid it into her duel disk, watching as it materialized behind the remaining token monster.

"I activate the magic card; Monster Reborn!" A gust of wind began to spiral around on Akina's field, collecting small particles of light that seems to shoot out from the green bordered card's image. "I can revive one monster in the graveyard with this card, and I choose my Fairy in the Crystal! (2000/1300)"

The swirling wind picked up, creating a perfect wall between the outside world and the happenings inside it. Dying out suddenly, the large crystallized monster once again appeared on the field before Akina.

"Fairy in the Crystal attacks! Go for his Alligator Sword!" Akina commanded, causing her fairy monster to start to, once again, spin its outer crystallized shell at an incredible speed. From the flat, glass-like sides of the monster beams of light began to shoot out, cutting through the monster like a knife through hot butter.

Snarling and flailing about as the attack severed the monster from the inside, the Alligator sword dropped its silver and black bladed sword to the ground before exploding into a thousand data bits racing outwards.

Akina – 4000 LP  
Joey – 2900 LP

"And I end my turn here." Akina cried out over the once again roaring fans.

"Alright then, here we go. Come on, I need a good card here." Joey placed his hand on the top of his deck, snapping the card off for his turn and flipping it over. Smirking, he held it up for a second before swiping his hand across his duel disk.

Behind the large iron knight on the field appeared a green bordered magic card, a gale force wind sucking the warrior inside of it. Once the monster was inside, the card reversed the flow of wind, spitting out a creepy little man with half of his cloths died red, and the other half died black.

"I sacrifice my Gearfried the Iron Knight in order to activate my magic card; Star Blaster!" Joey whipped his arm towards his little hovering man who had a blood red die in his little clutches, preparing to throw it. "Now I add the level of my sacrificed monster together with the roll of this die. If my luck holds out, I get to summon a monster of that level. If not, my turn ends instantly."

Cackling evily, the little half-and-half man threw the die down onto the stone arena they were on. Bouncing a few times the die finally came to a stop, three dots resting face up on it.

"Yes! Four from my knight and three from my dice is seven! Meet my deadly level seven terror!" Whipping one of the two cards from his hand, he slapped it down onto the duel disk, causing it to go frantic reading the data. "Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000)!"

A solid black scaled dragon burst out of a pool ripple in the air behind the blond duelist. Racing up, the blood red eyes of the monster locked onto its target, causing the beast to roar out with power. The crowd went nuts at this sight, cheering loudly for such a rare card to have appeared so suddenly.

"Attack now my monster! Inferno Fire Blast!" Snapping his arm forward, Joey's index finger locked onto the floating crystal monster that rested on Akina's field.

Snapping its maw open, the pitch-black dragon sent out a fire ball of molten red flames, engulfing its pray whole within a mater of seconds, causing it to shatter into tiny data bits racing out across the field.

Akina found herself being showered in a rain of flames as the attack went through the monster, deducting the needed amount of life points from her. Ducking her head under her bridged arms to protect herself until the attack subsided.

Akina – 3600 LP  
Joey – 2900 LP

"_That isn't good."_ Akina stared out from under her arms, watching as Joey and his prized monster regrouped after the attack. _"Such a strong monster, and he summoned him with such great skill of luck. This is what Joey is known for!"_

"I think I'm done with my turn." Joey called out, watching as Akina unfolded her arms, letting them flop back down to her side, unscathed from the virtual attack. _"This is what I'm talking about. Now all I need is to get through her token and I'll be sitting good at taking out some of her life points and taking back this duel."_

"Draw!" Akina cried out, snapping the top card from her deck and flipping it over. _"As nice as this card is, it's useless to me at the present moment."_ She sighed, sliding the card into her hand and looking up at Joey. "I've got nothing this turn. Your move."

"Alright!" Joey exclaimed, drawing his new card for the turn. Flipping it around, he slapped it down onto his duel disk, causing the cards data to be instantly read. "I summon my Rocket Warrior (1500/1300) in attack mode!"

Next to Joey a tiny, green armored monster appeared with a yellow and black checkerboard like design on its breast plate covering its circular body. Brandishing a razor sharp sword and a tiny green shield the monster took itself into a fighter's stance. His circular head had two beady black eyes staring out at Akina and her defending monster.

"Rocket Warrior attack the Crystal Fairy Token now!" Joey commanded with an outstretched arm pointing to the target.

Crouching up, the monster seemed to fold its armor in on it, creating a rocket like form. Its helmet coming across its head, slopping up to the point of a razor sharp dagger sticking straight up from the head of the monster, making the head of the missal. Pulling its arms into the side of it, the monster then launched itself off from rockets in the feet of the beast, sending it straight through the glass like monster, shattering it instantly.

"Red-Eyes Black Dragon direct attack!" Whipping his arm up, Joey emphasized the flame ball building between the pointed jaws of his black dragon. "Inferno Fire Blast!" Blasting out with a gun-shot like 'bang' the ball of fire raced across the field, smashing into its target and sending her flying backwards to her butt.

Akina – 1200 LP  
Joey – 2900 LP

Shaking her head, her soft sandy blond hair rushing across her face and obscuring her soft blue eye, Akina tried to shake off the shockwave from the attack. She was used to more powerful monster sending out more powerful shockwaves.

"_I need to find a way to get around that card!"_ Akina realized, looking up through the strands of her hair at the hovering black dragon. _"Joey is definitely pushing me to my limit."_

Standing up, she ran her hand across her face, pushing her hair back off to the side and hooking it behind her ear. She could hear the cheering of the crowd, pleased she had pulled herself back to her feet, and that she was brushing herself off to continue the fight.

"Great, you're back up. Sorry about that." Joey was rubbing the back of his head as he watched his opponent get resituated. "Anyways, that is my turn."

"Don't worry about it." Akina chuckled as she lifted her duel disk. "Draw!" She cried out, pulling the top card of her deck off and swishing it through the air until it came back into view. "I'll place this monster on the field in defense mode. Come out, Swordsman of Landstar!"

The horizontal card materialized in front of her, causing a fountain of sparks to go raining out onto the cement floor below. From the image burst out a small pale warrior wrapped in brown leather armor. A small brown shield attached to his arm had a self portrait etched into it, while the small steel sword crossed in front of it to create a barrier for the monster. (500/1200)

"And I'll set this card face-down as well." Akina announced, pushing the brown backed card into the slot on the duel disk, forcing the appearance of the hologram at her feet. "I finish my turn here."

"_Why do I doubt this is going to be the final move of the game?"_ Joey asked himself as he drew the top card of his deck without saying anything. Looking up, he palmed the card he drew, pointing to the small warrior with his right index finger. "Rocket Warrior attack!"

"No!" Akina yelled, watching as the little rocket man folded up into its missal mode, shooting out towards her monster. "I activate my set Waboku trap card! This will negate all damage to me and my monster this turn."

Forming around the young warrior in a flash of purple light, three light purple robed women stood, creating a barrier that instantly repelled the oncoming rocket. Twisting around, the Rocket Warrior U-turned and landed back on Joey's field, unfolding. Blinking a few times, it looked like it was dumbfounded that its attack had failed.

"Figured so." Joey smirked, his theory being proven with Akina's skillful block. "I will end my turn there."

Ronin crossed his arms, watching the duel intently. "This isn't looking so good for Akina. She managed to block the battles this round, but she's still not out of the hot water yet."

"You think she's doomed?" Sachiko asked, resting her head on Ronin's shoulder so that she spoke into his ear. The roaring crowd making chatter difficult.

"I know she's a good duelist, I'm not saying it's impossible for her to win, I'm just saying its going to take some good playing to do so. Joey didn't get to where he was on…" Stopping mid-sentence without even bothering to finish with the word 'luck', he began to rethink his sentence. "He beat some tough people to get where he is. He's no push over."

"I know Akina; she's no push over either." Reku stepped in for the defense of his loved one. "I'm betting this duel isn't over just yet."

"Draw!" Akina bellowed out over the crowd's cheers, snapping the top card from her deck and swishing it before her eyes. _"That's it! That is the card I needed!"_ Akina whipped the card around, sliding it into her duel disk without a second thought. "Here we go Joey. Time for my big play. Magic card; Dual Summoner!"

"So this turn you can summon two monsters instead of just one?" Joey cocked his eye, looking at the magic card that appeared in front of Akina with a ripple of light. "Building a wall?"

"Not quite." Akina smirked, holding up two of the three cards in her hand. Slapping the two cards down onto her duel disk, the holographic image of the two monsters sprouted upwards, one showing a little two legged, green skinned reptile, crouching down with its tapped up arms crossed over its body. The other was a oval shaped statue, with two yellow bead eyes staring out from black indents in the rocks surface. "I summon in defense mode; Gigobyte (350/300) and Haniwa (500/500)."

Taking the last card in her hand, Akina slid it into her duel disk as well, watching as it materialized before her with a wave of energy.

"Now I equip my Swordsman of Landstar with my Sword of the Soul Eater! This will absorbs all normal monsters on my field, filling him with 1000 extra attack points for each!"

Pegasus smirked slightly, remembering a similar move that Akina had used on him the night before. This time though she had better prepared her field, and thus was going to get a stronger monster from it.

Sliding the small dagger-like sword he held into the leather pouch on his back, the monster allowed the long, black bladed sword to materialize in his gloved hands. The demonic red eye at the neck of the sword looked around frantically, stopping when it saw the two normal monsters crouching in defense mode next to the Swordsman of Landstar. With a beam of red light, the sword shot out, grabbing a hold of both of the monsters with its invisible hand. Sucking them in, it instantly turned the two of them into energy, absorbing it into the fiber of being that was the sword.

(Swordsman of Landstar 2500/1200)

"My swordsman goes into attack mode." Akina cried out, pleased that her move had gotten her so far, putting a powerful monster on her field. Shifting the card on her duel disk so that it became vertical, she made the little warrior on the field stand up, taking a battle stance with its powerful new weapon. Prepared to launch itself into battle, the monster grunted a few times in its squeaky voice. "Attack now, destroy his Red-Eyes Black Dragon!"

"This could wipe out Joey's dragon!" Sachiko jumped up and down, sharing in the two guy's pleasure as well.

"Yeah! What a break for Akina!" Ronin said back, a wide smile creasing across his face before Joey spoke.

"Good luck with that."

"Good…luck?" Reku cocked and eyebrow before looking back at Ronin and Sachiko, who were also confused. Looking back, he saw the little swordsman taking off, charging on foot towards the awaiting dragon.

"Trap card go!" Joey cried out, whipping his arm across his body. "I activate my Skull Dice!"

"Oh no!" Akina watched as the purple bordered card appeared face-up, spitting out a black suited, demon like monster holding a blood red die in its greedy little hands.

"Whatever I roll on this die will be multiplied by 100 and then subtracted from your monsters' attack and defense points." Joey snapped his hand up to the hovering demon, giving it its visual orders. "Go!"

Winding back, the demon tossed the die down onto the concrete floor, watching as it rolled about before landing on its final answer. Akina closed here eyes, disappointed at the number.

"My Skull Dice has rolled a five! This means your monster is far weaker than mine now!" (Swordsman of Landstar 2000/700) Thrusting his arm forward, he aimed it perfectly at the charging mini-warrior. "Retaliate Red-Eyes!"

From its maw, the black scaled dragon sent out a blazing ball of flames, wrapping themselves instantly around the little warrior, disintegrating it instantly.

Akina – 800 LP  
Joey – 2900 LP

"There is nothing left I can do…" Akina looked from her bone dry field to her completely empty hand. "I'm done."

"You've fought well though." Joey flashed the thumbs up sign before drawing his next card. "It's been fun. Red-Eyes, finish!"

"It has been. Thanks Joey." Akina smiled, not even worried about the growing ball of flames inside the dragon's mouth. Blasting out, the fire ball engulfed Akina's body, draining it of the remaining 800 life points.

Akina – 0 LP  
Joey – 2900 LP

Falling to her knees from the shockwave of the attack, Akina found herself swimming in a sea of her hair, flopping over her face. A smile came across her lips as she heard the slight humming from the duel disk and holograms vanish, indicating the duel was done.

The crowds roaring in the background gave her new hope. She had pleased them with her duel. That is all she could ask for.

"Good job Akina." Joey called, turning and walking off the stage, leaving the kneeling girl there alone in front of the crowd.

She wasn't alone for long though, she felt three sets of warm, friendly hands on her shoulders. Knowing it was her friends, she lifted her head, brushing her long hair out of her face and smiling at them.

"I did my best, and it was AMAZING!" A spark glimmered in her soft, caring eyes. The excitement boiling over in her voice.

"Yes, but nerve racking I bet." Reku helped Akina to her feet, getting a nod 'yes' in response to his question. "Oh lovely." He chuckled, looking across the field. Ascending the stairs at the other end was his opponent.

The tri-colored haired man smiled warmly at the group, Reku in particular.

The crowd was going insane that they were going to get to see the King of Games himself duel. Many of them started chanting 'Yugi' over and over again, stomping their feet on the ground.

Kaiba scoffed, looking down at the ground with a bit of anger at the attention Yugi was getting. Joey just laughed, wanting to say something, but actually decided to keep it to himself because the loud booming voice came racing through the dome again.

"**And here we are ladies and gentlemen! The final match of today. So far Team Zero is striking out, but there is still one more representative from their team; Yamashita Reku! Will he score a win against the one, the only, King of Games himself; Motou Yugi?!" **

"_It's my turn."_ Reku held up his left arm, looking directly at Yugi. The emerald green duel disk that was resting there began to come to life, snapping the duel tray out into position for the game. _"It's my time to shine. Look out Yugi…here I come!"_

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**_Kaiba co. Case File: Duelists: Teams: Team Zero: Oshiro, Akina   
Kaiba co. Case File: Duelists: Single Duelists: Oshiro, Akina _**

**_ Name: Oshiro, Akina   
Age: 17   
Sex: Female   
Team Affliliations: Team Zero   
-- (if applicable) Position: Team Member   
Company sponsor: N/A   
-- (if applicable) Position: N/A   
Deck: Low Level, Ritual Knights   
Deck Style: Effects, Subtle damage, Stall_**

**_Bio: Akina is the only female duelist of Team Zero, her current dueling team lead by Endo, Ronin. Her other team mate is Yamashita, Reku and the teams  
cheerleader; Maeda, Sachiko. Akina came in 2nd during the city wide tournament that put together Team Zero. Her deck is meant to take the opponent out of their comfort zone, using a mix of powerful cards, and low level monsters. _**

**_Rarest/Trump (recorded) cards:   
-Fairy in the Crystal: (ATK:2000/DEF:1300/Star:6/Attribute:Light/Type:Fairy): When this card is successfully normal summoned or flip summoned, send cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard equal to the number of free monster spaces you have on the field. In each space, special summon one Crystal Fairy Token (500/500/2/Light/Angel). If two of these tokens are destroyed in a turn, select one magic card from your deck and add it to your hand, you cannot conduct a draw phase on your following turn. _**

**_-Bronze Loyal Knight: (ATK:1400/DEF:800/Star:6/Attribute:Earth/Type:Warrior/Ritual/):_****_You may send one card from your hand to the graveyard in order to place one card in your graveyard that is of the same type (monster, magic, or trap) in your hand. If this monster is attacked by a monster that has more than 1000 more attack than the current attack of this monster and you have a Silver Loyal Knight and a Gold Loyal Knight face up on your side of the field, negate the attack. This effect can be used only once per turn. _**

**_-Silver Loyal Knight: (ATK:1500/DEF:900/Star:6/Attribute:Earth/Type:Warrior/Ritual/):_** **_You may change the mode of one monster on the field to the opposite mode. You may use this effect only once per turn. If this monster is attacked by a monster that has more than 1000 more attack than the current attack of this monster and you have a Bronze Loyal Knight and a Gold Loyal Knight face up on your side of the field, negate the attack. This effect can be used only once per turn._**

**_-Gold Loyal Knight: (ATK: 1600/DEF:1000/Star:6/Attribute:Earth/Type:Warrior/Ritual/): Once per turn, you may pay 1000 life points to increase the attack of this card and a Silver Loyal Knight and Bronze Loyal Knight by 1000 points. If this monster is attacked by a monster that has more than 1000 more attack than the current attack of this monster and you have a Bronze Loyal Knight and a Silver Loyal Knight face up on your side of the field, negate the attack. This effect can be used only once per turn._**

**_-??_****_Oracles Rage Incarnate Seal of Power - Amethyst Crystal ?? (??magic??): -specs on this card are unclear-_**

**_NOTE: Akina, like her team mates, has a strange crystal-like card that is unknown of. No data can be collected on them. _**

-last edited by: Kaiba, Seto-

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	5. Third Try

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters**

**Team Zero: Kings**

5. Third Try

"**And here we are ladies and gentlemen! The final match of today. So far Team Zero is striking out, but there is still one more representative from their team; Yamashita Reku! Will he score a win against the one, the only, King of Games himself; Motou Yugi?!" **

"_It's my turn."_ Reku held up his left arm, looking directly at Yugi. The emerald green duel disk that was resting there began to come to life, snapping the duel tray out into position for the game. _"It's my time to shine. Look out Yugi…here I come!"_

"Good luck man!" Ronin called out over the crowd. Twisting his head, Reku looked at the group behind him disperse from the stage area, nodding to Ronin who was looking back over his shoulder at his friend.

"Well, it's good to meet you finally face-to-face like this Reku." Yugi called out, his voice rather deep for his size. The Pharaoh and Yugi hand bonded spirits, but Reku wasn't aware of this. Either way, they were both looking forward to the duel.

"Same here. To me, like so many other duelists, you are a duelling idol. Many people would kill to be where I am right now." Reku called back.

Closing his eyes and shaking his head slightly, Yugi chuckled. "The fame of this position is something that weighs on you. You can't even turn around without another person yelling your name."

"I bet." Reku gave a chuckle of his own in response. "I've somewhat had a taste of that on my way up. But my point is…" pulling out his deck as he spoke, Reku began to shuffle it, "your title will not scare me. I'm planning on doing the best I can to win."

"Good." Yugi nodded, sliding his own deck into his duel disk. "I wouldn't want any less."

"I don't want any less from you too Yugi. This is a definite test of my skills. All these duels have been for the team. But we still are having the time of our lives."

"**If both duelists are ready, shall we get this under way?"** Rolland called out over the microphone, watching Reku place his shuffled deck into the duel disk. Looking back and forth, he got a nod from both duelists. **"And now, finally, the last round of today is to be conducted. Mr. Reku, you move comes first!"**

"Alright!" Reku cried out, placing his hand on the top of his deck and looking at his opponent. The crowd was cheering so loud in the background; Reku could feel the vibrations racing up through his legs.

Taking a deep breath he pulled a chunk of cards from his deck and fanned them open in front of him. Counting five, he placed his fingers back on his deck and released the next card.

"Draw!" He yelled, slashing the card through the air. _"Not bad…could be worse."_ Looking up, Reku pondered what to do. _"Yugi isn't someone I can afford to be reckless with. I'll start slow and see where he goes from there."_

Taking a card from his hand, Reku laid it horizontally on the duel disk before him.

"I summon Battle Footballer in defense mode (1000/2100)!" As he announced its name, the padded cyborg monster appeared on his field, crouching down into a starting position that you'd see football players in on the line. Grunting, the monster looked out through its helmet at Yugi, its beady red eyes glowing brightly. "I end my turn."

"My move then!" Yugi cried out, sliding the top card from his deck and whipping it through the air. "I draw, and summon; Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200) in attack mode!"

Rising from the cement floor of the ring, the green armoured elfish warrior appeared with a loud roar that was accompanied by the crowd. With one great motion, the elf unsheathed its long, double bladed silver sword from its leather container, slicing it through the air before bringing it down to its side.

Glinting in the light of the dome, the green armour made the monster look like a powerful warrior.

"And I set this face-down on my field." Yugi cried, sliding a card from his hand into his duel disk. "This ends my turn." As he spoke the brown backed card materialized on the field before him, creating an ominous defense for the Celtic warrior.

"_That was fast!"_ Reku looked on in wonder at the move his opponent had played. Turning his head, he looked back at his team mates who were cheering him on. Gulping a bit, he looked back. _"He really knows what he's doing. Making such flash decisions."_

The five cards in his hand shook back and forth as his hand gave a violent tremor of fear. He was so nervous, all the sounds, the sights, the opponent he was placed up against. He not only was nervous, but overflowing with excitement. Lifting his hand up, he placed it on the top card of his deck.

"Alright then, it's my turn!" He yelled out, yanking his arm back. "Draw!"

Sliding the new card into his hand to create six total, Reku took a moment to scan over them. He wanted to run as fast as he could on instinct, but fear gripped him. He knew he couldn't just play anything, he had to play smart.

"_I wonder if this is how Akina and Ronin felt up here."_ Reku pondered as he slid a card from his hand and slapped it down onto his duel disk.

"I summon Warrior of the White Flame (2000/0)!" Announcing his card, Reku's hair was blown backwards as the stream of digital energy came rushing upwards from his field. Launching out from the steam was a warrior, slim and tall, wearing old, beat up armor that covered all of his body sans his human face. In his grips was a thin, double bladed sword with white fire licking off the edges. "Attack his monster now!"

As Reku barked the attack order, the monster took off in a gallant run, his metal boots clanking against the floor as he went. With an impressive display of swordsmanship, the monster whipped the blade around his body, cutting the green armored monster in half instantly.

Reku – 4000 LP  
Yugi – 3400 LP

"You've triggered my set card!" Yugi cried out, slashing his arm diagonally across his body till he was pointing directly at the face down card. "Open Soul Rope!"

Reku – 4000 LP  
Yugi – 2400 LP

"_He took a serious chunk out of his life points!"_ Reku watched as his opponent grabbed his deck in his duel disk, pulling it out and fanning it open.

"Soul Rope lets me summon a level four monster to my field from my deck once one of my monsters is destroyed. Of course, this costs me 1000 life points to do." Yugi explained, gracefully sliding one of the cards out of his deck and flipping it over onto his duel disk. "Rise up; Queen's Knight (1500/1600)!"

Where his elf warrior once stood, a long, blond haired knight jumped onto the field, slicing her double bladed sword through the air. Her red armored shined, perfectly polished. In her right hand she held a diamond shaped shield with engravings of the four suits of cards in a typical playing deck.

Giving his deck a few quick shuffles, Yugi slid it back into his duel disk. Looking up, he noticed Reku eying the monsters on the field. It was obvious a plan was trying to form in his head.

"I set this face-down on my field to end my turn." Reku announced, placing a card from his hand into his duel disk.

"Draw!" Yugi called out, pulling a new card from the top of his deck and adding it to his hand. Without skipping a beat, he grabbed one of the other cards from his hand and whipped it out, placing it on his duel disk next to his first monster. "I call forth my King's Knight (1600/1400) next in attack mode!"

A royal, orange armored knight appeared next to the female warrior already on Yugi's field. Slicing its sharp sword through the air, the monster grunted gruffly in a display of its power.

"When King's and Queen's Knight are on the field together they summon a comrade from my deck to the field." His deck was once again fanned open before him as he searched for the card. Finding it, he pulled it out and dropped it into the free monster card zone next to his other two monsters. "Jack's Knight! (1900/1000)"

This new knight was a tall, blue armored warrior with a much longer silver blade in its grasp. Hitting the side of it against his yellow crossed blue shield, the monster swung it down to his side, also grunting with its summoning.

Yugi nonchalantly shuffled his deck again, placing it back in his duel disk before making his final announcement.

"I end my turn there."

"_He must know the effect of my Warrior of the White Flame to not even lay a protection trap."_ Reku brought his duel disk horizontal, looking down at it. _"Though his deck sure is amazing. Even when he was getting smacked around, he was pulling out an amazing tactic."_ Putting his fingertips on the top card, Reku yanked it off for him to see it. "Draw!"

(Warrior of the White Flame 1500/500)

"My warrior loses some attack points during my standby phase, moving them to his defense points." Reku explained as he added the new card to the ones in his hand. Reaching down, he grabbed the card on his duel disk. "I shift him to defense mode then, ending my turn."

The monster grunted a bit with a disappointed noise, disliking the fact he was taken out of action so early. Crouching down, the orange bordered card materialized beneath him. He crossed the sword over his body, making a red hot metal shield.

"Alright then, my move. Draw!" Yugi called out, snapping his next card from his deck, quickly adding it to his hand before raising his hand, pointing to the crouching knight on Reku's field with his palm, his fingers outstretched. "Jack's Knight attack!"

As the monster raced forward, it stabbed forward, piercing the chest of the skinny knight with ease. Dropping its own weapon, the monster grabbed onto the intruding sword with a steel-like grip, trying to hold onto life longer. Roaring in pain, the beast shattered into a million pieces instantly.

"I'm done with my turn there." Yugi called out, letting his arm drop to his side once again. _"So far nothing much has happened this game."_

(Don't forget that we've seen Reku duel before. He's powerful, so this is definitely not the extent of his power.)

"_Don't worry Yugi, I remember."_ The pharaoh replied to the young man's voice coming from inside his head. Smiling a bit, his eyes shifted back to the field before him, looking intently at Reku who was in the process of drawing his card. _"I believe this is the calm before the storm."_

"I summon out my Robotic Knight!" Reku announced, slapping a card from his hand down onto his duel disk. Reading the card, the device instantly produced the android monster on the field before him. In his right hand was a long, cylinder shaped saber, his left hand being a machine gun. (1600/1800)

From his hand, another card was whipped out and placed in the emerald green duel disk, causing it to surge with the rainbow light through its joints.

"I activate the magic card; Sacred Blue Flame! This card lets me increase the attack of a fire monster on my field by 500 until the end of the turn." Reku explained, pointing to his decorated machine, watching as a flaming blue aura erupted around it (2100/1800). "With his new power he attacks your Jack's Knight!"

Snapping up its machine gun hand, the monster blasted out a slew of blue flaming bullets, crashing into the armor of the knight and sending him flying backwards on Yugi's field, exploding into a cloud of smoke and flames.

Reku – 4000 LP  
Yugi – 2200 LP

"_And that puts me again in the lead, taking out his strongest monster."_ Reku smirked, letting his arms come down to his side. "I end my turn there." (1600/1800)

"Draw!" Yugi wasted no time taking the next card from his deck and slapping it down onto his duel disk.

The blond haired knight became engulfed in a pillar of light, swirling up towards the very high ceiling of the dome.

"I'll offer Queen's Knight as a tribute to call out Berfomet!"

Rising out of the pillar of light was a demonic, red skinned monster with four, long arms. Mats of black unkempt hair came out of each of the four wrists, as well as covering its lower torso and the back of its head. Racing down its spin between the two, white wings that were jettisoning out from the monster's back. (1400/1800)

"When Berfomet is Normal Summoned I get to add from my deck to my hand my Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts." Yugi promptly yanked his deck out of his duel disk again, fanning it open to find the desired card.

"_Simply amazing."_ Reku watched intently as Yugi scanned through his cards for his Gazelle. _"He's done an amazing job of just opening his deck up to himself. He can take anything he may need right from it and he's still progressing on the field."_ Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the demonic skinned monster for a second. _"I have a vague idea where this move is going."_

As he pulled the yellow card from his deck and shuffled it yet again, Yugi wasted no time in placing it in the slot and returning to the game at hand. Moving one of the cards from his hand to the duel disk, he watched as the green card hologram materialized before him.

"I activate Polymerization; fusing Berfomet and Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts together to form…"

Racing into the swirling vortex that was produced by the magic card, the red skin demon was joined by a brown furred lion like monster. Vanishing, the two re-emerged a second later in a new form.

The tan skinned lion began to roar with both of its head. Flapping its large, white wings, it flew out from the vortex and landed on the stone stage next to the short, broad warrior. Ferociously, the monster eyed the field, taking in all the sights and processing it with both of its brain's power. (2100/1800)

"…Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast!" Yugi announced over both the crowds and his beasts roars.

"_I knew it!"_ Reku watched the beast take an ominous step forward, snorting a bit as it looked at its prey.

"Attack his Robotic Knight!" Yugi cried out, slashing his arm across his body and bracing himself. His hair and blue jacket whipped violently in the shockwave-wind that was whipped up when he beast launched itself off, racing towards Reku's monster.

Within seconds it had its front claws dug deep into the chest of the machine, both heads biting down on the shoulders of the beast, piercing the metal with their razor sharp teeth. Exploding in the clutches of the beast, the robot was turned instantly into a mess of red and black data particles, floating away from the battle field.

Reku – 3500 LP  
Yugi – 2200 LP

Unaffected by the explosion that happened between each of its jaws and right in front of its body, the beast lunged backwards to Yugi's field, snorting a bit with its good work, yet savage enough to remain in its beast like nature.

"I'll place this on my field face-down." Yugi announced, pushing a card into the slot on his duel disk. "Ending my turn!"

The brown backed magic or trap card materialized behind Yugi's two monsters with a ripple in the air and flash of golden and white light.

"Draw!" Reku yelled out, pulling the next card from his deck and placing it in his hand. _"Lucky for me, my Battle Footballer can hold off an attack by his Chimera. So that can save me. But even so…"_ Looking down at the now five cards he was holding, he smirked. _"I've got myself covered."_ Looking up, he smiled to Yugi. "Alright, I pass this turn."

"Draw!" Yugi announced, once again snapping the top card off his deck, adding it to his hand, and instantly getting to work by pulling out another card and moving it to his duel disk. "I sacrifice King's Knight to summon The Beast of Gilfer!"

"What?!" Reku's eyes widened as he watched the last night become engulfed in a pillar of light. This time what came out was a blue skinned demonic beast with blood red armor covering most of its body. Long white spikes sticking out from the chest plate of the armor, gleaming in the light. (2200/2500)

"Beast of Gilfer attack! Attack his Battle Footballer with your Demonic Flame!" Yugi cried out, flinging his arm forward toward the defending android.

Growling, the beast cupped its hands, forming a huge ball of fire between its long, gray nails. Winding back the monster launched it forward like a comet, aimed directly at the sports monster. Crashing into its chest, the explosion that ensued was huge, spreading a wave of smoke and flames across the whole field.

"Chimera direct attack!" Yugi's voice rang out through the smoke, causing Reku to brace himself knowing what was charging forward at full pace at him. Bursting through the black cloud, the two headed beast landed on top of Reku, throwing him to his back with a loud thump.

Reku – 1400 LP  
Yugi – 2200 LP

The tan monster returned to Yugi's field just as the smoke stared to disperce off of the stage, giving the two duelists clean view of one another again.

Yugi's eyes lifted slightly when he heard a hissing noise from across the field. As well as a slow crackling like the noise fire makes. When the smoke had moved out of the way enough he saw a long, molten red snake sitting on Reku's field. The only thing on the monster that wasn't on fire was its red hot rock underbelly and two grey horns that protruded from its head.

"What?"

"Thanks." Reku's voice called out as the black haired boy pulled himself to his feet from behind the beast. When the smoke cleared enough, Yugi could see that the face-down card on Reku's field had popped up. "I activate my set trap; Monster Steel Tunnel. When I receive a direct attack I can use this card to bring a monster from my deck to the field with equal or less attack points of the monster that hit me. In this case I choose my Solar Flare Dragon (1500/1000)."

"Impressive." Yugi closed his eyes, a smile pulling at the ends of his lips, pulling them thin.

(You do realize that he is probably setting up to lock you with another copy in his hand, right?) The young man inside the head of the duelist called out, getting a mental nod in response.

"_I know, I'm covered."_ Yugi opened his eyes, pointing to his set card. "Impressive but I chain my own trap to counter you. Activate Chain Destruction!"

"No way!" Reku watched in horror as the said trap card flipped up, the image glowing brightly as it began to activate.

"My card works when a monster of 2000 attack or less is summoned. I'll destroy all monsters in your deck and hand with an identical name to the one on the field." As Yugi spoke, a large golden chain with a point on the end shot out, racing across the field at an incredible speed, passing through one of the cards in Reku's hand, then looped around and crashed into the top of his deck.

Sighing as he moved, Reku placed the Solar Flare Dragon card from his hand into his graveyard slot, watching as it vanished into the darkness. Then, pulling out his deck, he fished up another copy of the card, also placing it into his graveyard slot.

"I end there." Yugi called to Reku, smiling as his two beasts gave powerful roars. "Don't get me wrong, you're an awesome duelist and your doing good." Holding up his duel disk, Yugi showed the orange and purple bordered cards resting on it. "But you can overcome these two can't you? You did an impressive job during the tournament at overcoming obstacles."

"Were you thinking I was going to back down?" Reku cocked an eyebrow, placing his finger tips on the smooth surface of the cards on his deck. "I will be coming back from this, just you watch. Draw!"

His eyes grazed over the card image, formulating a plan in his head before placing the card into his duel disk.

"Magic card go! Pot of Greed!" Holding up his duel disk again, Reku slid two more cards from his deck and added them to his hand. "I draw two more cards from my deck, and I've fortunately gotten this card!" Sliding another card into his duel disk, Reku watched triumphantly as it appeared on the field next to him. "I activate my Hole in the Plan!"

(Hole in the Plan huh?) Yugi, who was still watching intently from the mind of the pharaoh, nodded approvingly. (That is a good card. It is a bit harder to come by though. It'll help him to pull out a stronger monster in any case.)

"_Yes."_ The pharaoh nodded in agreement to his partner. _"It makes things more interesting to say the least, wouldn't you say?"_

(Of course.)

"I get to remove monster cards from my graveyard equal to the numbers of stars above four of one monster in my hand. Once I've done that, I may normal summon the monster without the need for tributes." As he spoke, Reku's graveyard slot spit out three cards that he grabbed up and fanned open to show Yugi. "I'll remove two Solar Flare Dragons and my Warrior of the White Flame in order to summon a level seven monster from my hand."

Whipping his hand across his duel disk, Reku plopped down a card instantly, sending waves of data flowing through the devices circuits.

On the field before him, a large, emerald scaled reptilian monster appeared, roaring up towards the ceiling of the dome. It seemed almost to smile when the crowd roared back to the monster.

Inside the beasts mouth was a large cannon that blocked off its throat. Down the sides of the beast were large metal plates, some exposed wiring, and a few flashing lights. Obviously the monster was a dragonic monster turned into a machine.

"I choose my Mech Dragon Blaster (2500/2000)!" Reku cried out over the roaring crowd, pleased with his monster. "Unfortunately, my magic card prevents it from attacking this turn. So I shift my Solar Flare Dragon to defense mode and set this card face down."

The snake beast curled up on its own card image, hissing slightly at Yugi. Behind it, a brown back card popped out of a ripple in the air, shining for a brief second with a yellow and white light.

"I'll end my turn there." Snapping his arm forward, Reku's molten snake beast began to roar uncontrollably, blasting out a stream of fire that engulfed Yugi for a second, causing him to cry out in pain. "During my End Phase, my Solar Flare Dragon deals you 500 points of direct damage." Reku explained just before the beeping of Yugi's duel disk went off.

Reku – 1400 LP  
Yugi – 1700 LP

"Good. Draw!" Yugi announced, whipping the top card of his own deck off and glancing at its face. Adding the card to his hand, he quickly snatched up another one and flipped it over onto his duel disk. "I'll summon my Gamma the Magnet Warrior (1500/1800)!"

Appearing instantly next to Yugi's other two monster was a pink, boxy little monster made of metal with a large magnet resting on its collar. On its back were two flaps, like wings, one with a red N on it, the other with a blue S.

"Gamma attack his Solar Flare Dragon now!" Yugi called out, thrusting his arm forward to the molten snake curled up on his opponent's field.

Blasting forward, the little monster extended its metal arm, running it metallic fist right through the body of the best, causing it to whip wildly, hissing with pain.

As the beast lashed about, the monster withdrew its arm, jettisoning back to Yugi's field seconds before the monster exploded in a fiery death.

"And now." Without skipping a beat, Yugi's arm shifted towards his own monster, the red and blue Beast of Gilfer that was growling deep in its throat. "Beast of Gilfer attack his Mech Dragon Blaster!"

"But why?" Ronin scrunched in his brow, glaring at Yugi trying to figure out what the meaning behind the move was. "What is the point in suicide? What can the Beast of Gilfer do?" Ronin was about to get his answer as the monster formed a large, red ball of flame between its cupped hands, wielding it back and launching it forward like a pitcher in a baseball game.

"Retaliate!" Reku screamed out, his monster snapping its jaws open with a loud, mechanical pop. Inside, the cannon that was blocking off the beast's threat became active, spewing a large ball of fire out, racing towards the oncoming opponent's attack.

Surpassing the smaller ball of flames easy, the dragon's attack raced towards Yugi's monster, crashing into its chest and blasting right thought it, causing the monster to explode into a million tiny bits of data.

"Beast of Gilfer effect activates!" Yugi yelled as he swiped the card across his face, depositing it into the graveyard. "When he's sent to the graveyard, I can spread a deadly virus through one monster on the field, thus weakening it by 500 points."

Reku – 1400 LP  
Yugi – 1400 LP

The rouge data bits began to circle around the green lizard, slowly moving towards it, like a stealthy lion sneaking up on its prey. With one huge lunge, the data bits went crashing into the skin of the monster, vanishing as it entered the beast living a million odd purple spots across the monsters skin (2000/2000).

"This is the end of your monster. Chimera destroy it now!" Yugi cried out as his massive twin headed lion burst out from beside of him, racing at full speed towards the weakened dragon monster.

"This isn't over yet!" Reku snapped his arm down in response to Yugi's cry, causing the crowd to gasp, but then break back out into cheers. "I activate my set trap; Quick Action Machine! This card lets me remove a quick-play magic card in my grave from game, in order to activate its effect once again! I of course choose the only quick-play magic card in my grave; Sacred Blue Flame!"

The twin-headed lion didn't stop, unable to comprehend what was happening as it charged at the now blue glowing dragon, roaring loudly at the ceiling of the dome they were in. As its power level shot up, the beast formed a massive aqua colored ball of fire between its ridged teeth, compiling it into its cannon. (2500/2000)

"Counter blow!" Reku cried out as his monster launched its attack, disintegrating the lion in one mighty blow.

Reku – 1400 LP  
Yugi – 1000 LP

"Nice move." Yugi smirked, holding up the purple bordered card for a second before sliding it into his graveyard. "Didn't see that one coming. But even so, you still triggered the effect of my Chimera to summon one of its fusion components from the grave to the field. Return now: Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts (1500/1200), defense mode!"

The brown, single horned lion beast appeared in a rain of sparks on Yugi's field, crouching over its yellow colored card. Growling fiercely, the monster glared at Reku and his metallic dragon.

"I'll set this card face-down on my field, and end my turn." Yugi announced as he placed a card from his hand into the duel disk, causing the back of a card to materialize behind his two monsters.

(Mech Dragon Blaster 2000/2000)

"_This is still not very good for me."_ Reku glanced down at the three cards in his hand as his monster lost its attack bonus. Reaching for his deck, he plucked the top card off of it and added it to his hand. Looking up, he slid a card from his hand and put it face-up on his duel disk. "I summon Dekayak the Mech Warrior (1600/1500), attack mode!"

Before Reku in a blast of light appeared a large, skinny, human like figure landed on Reku's field with a loud thump. Before its metal armored chest were four arms make completely out of machines were flexing themselves, preparing them for the attack. On the head of the blue skinned monster rested a crown made of golden horns jutting upwards then curling in.

Running his hand through his hair briefly, Reku pondered what his next move should be. Making a quick choice, he thrust his arm out, pointing towards the little pink magnet. "Mech Dragon Blaster attack his Gamma now! Mechanized Fire Ball!"

From the cannon in the mouth of the beast, the dragon launched another ball of red hot flames towards the little magnet, incinerating it instantly with the weak, but still deadly force.

Reku – 1400 LP  
Yugi – 500 LP

"Dekayak attacks your Gazelle then!" Reku cried out, watching his four armed beast rush forward, pummeling the lion over and over again until it exploded into a wave of data bits. "That is all I will do for my turn."

"Alright then." Yugi nodded, smiling a bit as he placed his hand on the top card of his deck. Looking down, he focused all of his attention, all of his faith on that single card. "Draw!" He yelled out, snapping the top card off of his deck and bringing it back before his face. Smirking a bit, he looked at Reku as he pulled another card from his hand and placed it into his duel disk. "Magic card go: Monster Reborn! This will revive from my graveyard Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast!"

"_No, Chimera overpowers both of my monsters…"_ Reku glared at the beast that came rushing out of a fountain of lights from behind Yugi. Landing on the field, the beast roared with both heads, being interrupted by a cry from its master.

"Quick-play magic card activate; De-Fusion!" Yugi pointed to his set card, flipping up instantly and sending out a violet light towards the beast, freezing it in time. A loud ripping noise could be heard as the monster was blanketed in the light, spitting out the red skinned demon and the brown furred lion monsters.

"Say what?!" Reku watched as the two weaker monsters appeared on Yugi's field again, both of them roaring with their summoning again.

"I can send Chimera back to my fusion deck to summon Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts (1500/1200) and Berfomet (1400/1800) to my field. A perfect combination of two monsters needed for this." Holding out the card he had drawn, it all made perfect sense to Reku then. "I make a double sacrifice in order to summon forth; Dark Magician!"

The two beasts were sucked back into the holographic image of the signature card from Yugi's deck. The ray of deep purple that came gushing out of the card image swamped Yugi's field over in a magical fog, concealing it from view for a few seconds until it started to disperse over the sides of the arena.

When it did, it revealed a tall, purple robed monster resting on Yugi's field, a long, green staff resting on the ground by its side. His eyes were narrow, filled with a sense of power as he gazed upon his opponent from under his tall, pointed purple head piece. (2500/2100)

"Dark Magician attack!" Reku watched helplessly as Yugi pointed towards his Dekayak with his outstretched palm. "Dark Magic!"

Whipping up the staff, the monster preceded to aim it casually at the four arm, blue skinned beast. Growling deep in his through, the staff emitted an aura which seemed to drain the area of color between him and the attacked monster, causing it to collapse to its knees in pain before exploding into tiny data bits.

Reku – 500 LP  
Yugi – 500 LP

"So we are tied again." Reku wiped off his mouth, as if he were in a fight and wiping blood off his lip. Smiling, he started at his opponent with great determination burning in his brown eyes. "I didn't think I'd stand this good of a chance against you. It has been an amazing duel."

"I will agree." Yugi nodded, closing his eyes. "It has been an amazing duel, except, you always stood a chance. You underestimate your skills greatly. I saw what you were capable of during the tournament, and I have seen that here as well. Can you come back from this?"

"Let's see then." Reku responded, placing his finger tips on the top card of his deck, waiting for Yugi to give the signal. Nodding, Reku drew the top card off his deck and moved it to his line of vision. Sighing, he slid it into his other hand, between his other cards already there. _"That isn't going to be helpful at all in turning the tide."_

Reaching down, he took a hold of his monster card on his duel disk, flipping to its side before resetting it on the duel disk.

"I shift Mech Dragon Blaster into defense mode." He called out, before reaching into his hand and pulling out the card he drew and slapping it onto his duel disk. "And I summon my Alpino the Mech Warrior (1600/1500) in defense mode as well."

Next to the first monster, a second yellow bordered card appeared with a blast of light. From it, a pure metal man appeared kneeling down with two, long swords crossed before its body. On its head, a plate of metal waved up off the helmet of the man, creating a decorative design with a small hole going completely through it.

"I end my turn there." Reku cried out, hiding behind his defensive wall of monsters.

"My turn then!" Yugi cried out, holding up his duel disk and grabbing the top card of his deck. "Draw!" Snapping the card off, he flicked it through the air until he could see the face of it, then slid it into his duel disk. "Alright, I activate the magic card: Pot of Greed. This lets me draw two cards from my deck."

With great speed, Yugi plucked two more cards from the top of his deck, fanning them open to view their faces. In them was a monster card with a white cotton ball looking monster. The other was a magic card with a ancient looking book. Smirking, he moved one of the cards to his duel disk instantly.

"I activate the special effect of my Watapon (200/300) to special summon him instantly when he's drawn outside my draw phase!" The little fluffy monster materialized on Yugi's field, squeaking with joy as it appeared.

It wasn't around for long though, as a large pillar of light engulfed it, causing the monster to vanish as it was sacrificed. Yugi wasted no time in slapping down the last card he had in his hand.

"I sacrifice Watapon in order to summon Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700)!" Announced Yugi as the pillar of light vanished, released a smaller, hyperactive girl onto the field. Giggling, she floated around being led by her wand. She wore blue clothing, along with a large, pointed blue wizard's hat that sat down on top of her long, blond hair.

"_The duo of magician's Yugi is most famous for using!"_ Reku's eyes grew wide with excitement as he looked upon the two magician the sat on Yugi's field in front of the duelist.

Ronin crossed his arms, making mental note of the play Yugi had just made. _"Reku has pushed this duel down to 500 life points each. Amazing! He's forced Yugi to even bring out his best two monsters. But…"_ Ronin's eyes scanned his friend's field. _"But it won't end this turn I don't believe. Reku can keep fighting. Kind of like how well Akina actually did against Joey. I…"_ Ronin narrowed his eyes, clenching his hand into a tight balled fist. _"…was obliterated by Kaiba in one attack…"_

"Magic card: Magic Formula!" Yugi announced, sliding the last card he held into his duel disk. In front of the young female magician, an ancient looking book appeared floating in air. Grabbing it, she flipped open the pages and began reading. A light pink aura raced over her body as the book and the knowledge empowered her. (2700/1700) "This card gives Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl an additional 700 attack points." Yugi explained calmly, smiling wide when he saw the excitement and determination overflowing from his opponent's eyes.

"_This is so great!"_ Reku looked down at his hand of three cards. _"I know he can't kill me off this turn. But I need to begin formulating a counter attack. If I could…just beat…those two monsters."_

"_He is refusing to give up."_ Yugi confirmed by the look on Reku's face. This made him feel even happier to be facing him. _"Reku, just like his team mates, are true duelists. They have the true spirit of dueling inside of them."_ Lifting his hand up, Yugi pointed towards the crouching dragon monster that was resting on Reku's field. "Dark Magician, Dark Magic Attack!"

Snapping the wand forward, the space between the two monster seemed to grow cold, a stream of energy bursting from the orb at the end of the staff, inverting the colors of the space as it traveled, destroying the defending monster the mere second it made contact.

"Dark Magician Girl, attack Alpino the Mech Warrior now! Dark Burning Attack!" Yugi continued his assault, not losing his pace. His monster, also without missing a beat, whipped her little wand around her body, throwing a ball of pink energy off of the end, cursing towards the remaining defending monster. The second it hit, a huge explosion raced across the field, kicking up mass amounts of smoke and embers. "I end there!"

"_Yugi is incredibly strong."_ Reku thought as he held up his duel disk. "This is definitely the defining moment of the duel! Let's see what I've got! Draw!"

Reku soon held the newly drawn card between his fingers, staring intently at its face. Looking up, Yugi could see that the gears were turning inside Reku's head.

"I set this card face-down on my field!" Reku yelled out, sliding one of the three cards he held in his hand into his duel disk. Instantly, the hologram materialized at his feet. "And I summon Flare Samurai (1500/1200) in attack mode!"

A rush of flames burst from behind Reku, spitting out a black and red armored samurai warrior. Unsheathing its long sword, and whipping it through the air talented before its feet ever hit the concrete floor in front of Reku.

Next to the beast, a blast of smoke erupted towards the sky. From the smoke came a ninja looking monster, clad in red and black clothing. In its hands, between each of its fingers, it held a star shaped shuriken.

"When Flare Samurai is summoned, Flare Ninja (1500/1200) can also be summoned!" Reku explained over the roaring crowd. "My two monsters shall act as walls between you and me. I end my turn."

"_Walls?"_ Yugi cocked his eyes as he looked at the two monsters. "But they are both in attack mode."

"Yes, it looks like they are." Reku smirked, a bit jokingly, looking back and forth at his two monsters. "Walls that can fight back maybe?"

"Alright." Yugi gave a little chuckle at Reku's joke before drawing his next card. With little hesitation he slid the card into his duel disk. "I activate the magic card: Graceful Charity! The lets me draw three new cards from my deck at the cost of discarding two of them."

With a swish of his hand, Yugi yanked three cards from his deck and fanned them open. His purple eyes glanced over each one before he swiftly pulled one of them out, sliding the other two into his graveyard slot.

"Dark Magician Girl." Yugi looked up, without taking a second pause, and continued his turn swiftly. "Attack Flare Samurai now! Dark Burning Attack!"

Closing the book in her hands with out loud, muffled 'thump', the blond sorceress giggled as she whipped her small wooden end wand across her body, throwing another ball of energy whizzing across the field towards the armored warrior.

"Not so fast!" Reku cried out, whipping his arm forward. "I choose to activate my set card: Two-Man Flamethrower! This will equip to my two monsters of fire, making them into one beast with a combined attack and defense score, plus a small boost of 500 attack!"

Crouching together, the to flare monsters held up their hands as a large, metal device materialized between them, causing them both to strain their muscles with the sudden weight of it. (3500/2400)

"This is where it ends!" Reku cried out, snapping his arm forward. _"I actually beat the King of Games! This does it!"_ A large smile creased his lips before he cried out: "Counter attack!"

Pulling back the triggers, the monsters blasted out a stream of fire from the nozzle at the end of the device. The flame pierced through the pink ball of magic that was about halfway across the field, and continued its journey towards the young blond magician. It inched closer, finally colliding with its target, sending a large blast racing out across the field.

Reku's smiled faded though when he saw spurts of flames rushing away from the target. Once the smoke cleared, he could see a large barrier of what appeared to be electrical energy surrounding the young magician. Giggling a bit, the Dark Magician Girl stuck out her tongue and pulled down the lip of her eye, mocking Reku.

"The special effect of this monster activates!" Yugi held up his duel disk, pulling a card out of his graveyard and flicking it over. "When I used Graceful Charity, I sent this monster to the graveyard, triggering its effect. Electromagnetic Turtle leaves a small amount of electrical energy on the field, capable of ending all battles this turn." Looking up, Yugi smiled. "It's very handy to have. So with him, I shall end my turn."

"You stopped that, but can you stop this!" Reku cried out, snapping the next card off of his deck and adding it to his hand. "Go again! Destroy Dark Magician Girl with your duo flamethrower!"

"I cannot stop that." Yugi admitted, watching the blast of flames from the device race across the field towards him. As they engulfed his female wizard, a loud explosion could be heard as the monster was turned instantly into dust.

Reku – 500 LP  
Yugi – 1500 LP

"But…" Yugi held up the card in his hand, flipping it over to reveal a orange boardered card with a brown furry monster on it. "I can discard Kuriboh to make the damage to my life points zero. And then, when Magic Formula goes to the graveyard, an additional 1000 life points is added to my life points."

"No way!" Reku felt his victory slip away again. "Well, this is the true power of the mighty King of Games indeed. I'm still sitting good with my monster on the field, so it's your turn!"

"Draw!" Yugi cried out, pulling the top card off of his deck and whipping it out to his side, holding it there for a second before bringing it back to his face. Looking up, he stared directly at Reku. "Your monster is powerful, but it comes with a great weakness. It's now vulnerable to all kinds of removal. Meaning this will do damage to your plan! Go Mystical Space Typhoon!"

"Uh-oh!" Akina shrank back on the sidelines along with Sachiko who went back with her. Ronin's crossed arms came apart, hanging there in mid-air.

"This destroys one magic or trap card on the field. I choose, Two-Man Flamethrower!" Yugi declared as a massive blast of wind came ripping up from behind him, racing across the field and smashing the metal machine to bits as if it were a pane of glass. Along with it, the two monsters began to scream, both of them blasting apart with their machine. "When one of the parts goes, it takes the other parts with it, no?"

"_Dammit, he's right."_ Reku cursed, sliding the three cards into his graveyard. _"Playing Two-Man Flamethrower linked all three of them together."_

"Dark Magician go! Dark Magic Attack!" Yugi wasted no time in launching his finishing blow.

Thrusting his staff forward, the purple robbed monster blasted out the negative colored energy, engulfing the entire field, and rushing inwards onto Reku. Screaming with the shockwave from the dueling system, Reku was sent flying backwards, landing on his butt.

Reku – 0 LP  
Yugi – 1500 LP

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**_ Kaiba co. Case File: Duelists: Teams: Team Zero: Yamashita, Reku   
Kaiba co. Case File: Duelists: Single Duelists: Yamashita, Reku_**

**_Name: Yamashita, Reku   
Age: 17   
Sex: Male   
Team Affliliations: Team Zero   
-- (if applicable) Position: Team Member   
Company sponsor: N/A   
-- (if applicable) Position: N/A   
Deck: Fire, Machine   
Deck Style: Effects, Beatdown, Burn _**

**_Bio: Reku has shown fierce skills besides being the last person added to Team Zero, coming in 3rd in the city wide tournament that brought the team together. He currently has not competed in any tournament on his own, but has only done things with his team and team mates: Oshiro, Akina (Team Member), Endo Ronin (Leader of Team Zero) and Maeda, Sachiko (Team Cheerleader). His deck is a jumbled assortment of Machine and Fire monsters. Many monsters sharing both traits. He has both strength and a side burn strategy. _**

**_Rarest/Trump (recorded) cards:  
-Android Dragon Tyrant: (ATK:5000/DEF:5000/Star:10/Attribute:Fire/Type:Machine/Fusion/): (Jinzo) + (Mech Dragon Blaster) + (Barrel Dragon) A Fusion Summon of this monster can only be conducted with the above Fusion Material Monsters. Once per turn, flip three coins. For each heads, destroy one card on your opponent's side of the field (magic and trap cards cannot be chained to this destruction) and your opponent takes 500 points of damage. For each Tails you take 500 points of damage. This card is unaffected by the effects of Trap cards._ **

**_-Jinzo (ATK:2400/DEF:1500/Star:6/Attribute:Dark/Type:Machine):_** **_As long as this card remains face-up on the field, Trap Cards cannot be activated. The effects of all face-up Trap Cards are negated. _**

**_--??_** **_Oracles Rage Incarnate Seal of Power – Ruby Crystal ?? (??magic??): -specs on this card are unclear- _**

**_NOTE: Reku possesses a strange crystal-like card, like his team mates. I have never seen cards like them. Thus makes me wonder about Reku and his team mates as duelists, using such powerful cards. _**

-last edited by: Kaiba, Seto-

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	6. Irrevocable Aftermath

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters  
Team Zero: Kings**

6. Irrevocable Aftermath

"Dark Magician go! Dark Magic Attack!" Yugi wasted no time in launching his finishing blow.

Thrusting his staff forward, the purple robbed monster blasted out the negative colored energy, engulfing the entire field, and rushing inwards onto Reku. Screaming with the shockwave from the dueling system, Reku was sent flying backwards, landing on his butt.

Reku – 0 LP  
Yugi – 1500 LP

The crowd was all on their feet, their cheers literally shaking the whole dome. Many of them were creating a rhythmic pounding by stomping their feet against the floor. Others were just clapping and yelling at the tops of their lungs.

Shaking his head, Reku shook off his dizzy feeling from the powerful attack. Looking up, he saw a hand extended towards him. His eyes traced down the blue sleeved arm to the warm face of his opponent.

"You fought a hard duel." He spoke as Reku took a hold of his hand. Pulling back with his weight, he helped Reku to his feet once again. "You are like a true duelist; you keep your heart close to that of your deck's."

"Thanks." Reku rubbed the back of his head, not quite sure what to say. "It was an amazingly fought duel. I thought I had you for a second there."

"It almost looked that way." Yugi responded watching as Ronin, Akina and Sachiko came running up the stairs behind Reku. "Maybe next time you will. I'll look forward to having a rematch with you someday."

"Awesome." Reku's response was instant, causing his body to bounce slightly off the ground like a hyper fanboy. "I'll look forward to that day as well."

"Good." Yugi turned from the small finally collected group, and walked back to his end of the dueling ring.

"**Ladies and gentlemen! Your winner for round three is Mr. Yugi Motou!"** Roland removed the microphone from his mouth for a second as the crowd erupted into another loud cheer of agreement. ** "Thus concludes the rounds of today's matches! Even though Team Zero suffered three losses, the action in the three incredible duels makes up for the outcomes."**

* * *

"Makes up for the outcome indeed." The announcer agreed with Roland's statement, turning back to face the camera that was in his little announcer's box overseeing the duel and providing commentary to the fans who were watching at home. "Team Zero went bravely up against some of the best duelists our dueling generation has known, and did incredibly well. This will most certainly be talked about for a time to come." 

The TV clicked off as a young man hit the red button on his TV remote. Putting it down on the table next to him, he stretched out, making loud cracking noises as he popped each of his joints.

"Well, that was an interesting way to spend the day." Another young man in the room spoke up, to a young female sitting in a chair along a large, tan stone wall, and the young man in a recliner in the corner.

"Interesting, maybe. Would have been better if I got a chance to face them. Any of those six would do. Just to show my own power." The young man stood up, running metallic black fingers through his shaggy green hair.

"Maybe one day you will Kiro." The young woman encouraged him as she, and the other young man stood up.

"Doubt it Kaira, I have no tournament standings." Kiro growled, walking forward towards the door at the far side of the room. "Chao has a better chance of facing them one day just cause of all the tournaments he goes to."

"But I don't to incredibly well all the time." Chao, the young silver haired man, protested, walking up behind his friend along with Kaira.

"Even so, your name is in a roster some where. You have more standings than I do, even if I probably could hold my own just fine with any of them. Probably beat them."

"You could, you know, enter some tournaments. You'd most likely do incredibly well with your level of skill." Chao offered, causing the green haired man to stop as he reached the closed door.

"Probably could. But why waste my time to prove something to this pathetic human race." Kiro retorted, opening the door and walking out of the room with his friends in toe.

"Did ya have fun?" A tall, shaggy blue haired man looked up from a tan piece of paper he was reading from, talking to the three as they came in the room.

"Oh yes, always more fun to watch a duel then to be in it." Kiro sarcastically threw back, pulling out a chair at the table where the blue haired being sat. "Where is Kooru and Heruru?"

"Off fetching more scrolls. Kooru is incredibly worried."

"Really?" Chao and Kaira both spoke at the same time, sitting down in chairs on either side of Kiro. "Why's that Hebanu?" Chao spit out seconds before Kaira had a chance to speak again.

"He thinks the time is incredibly near. A time for our purpose in this world. Of course, near could be anywhere from tomorrow, to 50 years from now." Hebanu spoke, laying his reading material down. "We have to study up on it as much as we can, to be prepared."

"What if whatever it is doesn't actually happen?" Kaira questioned, getting odd looks from the guys in the room. "I mean, there is a chance…right?"

"Not likely." Kiro rolled his blood red eyes. "Just like my trials, just like my fate as being a carrier to these three demons, and just like my little demonic transformation myself," Kiro held up his metallic black skinned hand to emphasize his point, "it'll happen, its destiny."

* * *

The four members of Team Zero made a unison jump, taking them from the top of the square dueling platform, to the floor below. Their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, they walked to the sidelines with large smiles on their faces. 

From the dueling entrance ran in a small group of four people, being trailed by a fifth guy with a slightly fast walk but not bothering to run. Joe, Kevin, Ryokurio and Usami all got to Team Zero, starting their congratulations for a job well done.

"You three never cease to amaze me." Gurabe, the fifth, finally spoke as he made it to the group. His arms crossed over his chest, his mouth twisted up into a chicken-shit grin. "Pulled some amazing punches out there. Almost good enough to impress me."

"Yeah." Ronin rolled his eyes, almost sighing out his response to the zombie. _"Some people here I'm sure."_

"Oh shut up." Joe spoke, mock punching Gurabe on the shoulder. The small group began to laugh, amused by the antics of their comrades. Even Gurabe, after recovering from the shock, gave a slight chuckle.

What they didn't know was that across the ring, Kaiba was staring intently at the small group, his blue eyes fixed on one of them in particular. Tightening his fist, and the corners of his lips being weighted down into a disgusted frown, the young businessman looked as if he was ready to crack some heads.

"Kaiba?" Yugi, not the pharaoh as they had changed back, asked as he walked past the man in the white duster.

"I'm fine." Kaiba growled, turning and walked away past the four people standing there. Mokuba took off running after his brother, leaving Joey, Yugi and Pegasus alone.

"As stuck up and arrogant as ever." Joey growled, turning to his little companion. "Well Yug, shall we hightail it out of here?"

"Sounds good to me." Yugi nodded, turning to Pegasus who stood behind the two of them. Reaching out, the two of them shook hands for a second. "It was a pleasure working with you."

"Like-wise Yugi-boy. Though the tournament didn't go as smoothly as we had planned, at least we could put that all aside and have a good time today."

"Indeed." Joey agreed.

* * *

Kevin, Joe, Ryokurio, Usami and Gurabe had to leave Reku, Ronin, Akina and Sachiko alone because the press wanted to have interviews with them, so the group of five went walking outside the dome, taking in the lovely afternoon in Domino. The birds fluttered through the sky, casting elongated shadows across the neatly cut grass. 

Talking amongst themselves as they slowly walked, they didn't notice three black suited men walking up to the group, stopping about two yards from the group.

"Kevin Hunter." One of the men spoke, catching the group off guard, causing them to stop instantly and look at the suited men.

"Ye…yes?" Kevin replied, a bit nervous to be singled out like this.

"We were told to escort you to our office. We are having a slight situation and we need you." The center man replied, his voice cool, crisp but stern, and very official sounding. Reaching up, he pushed his sunglasses up against his eyes again, as they were sliding down his slightly hooked nose. "Don't worry, you aren't in trouble."

"Oh, alright." Kevin nervously looked around the group before walking forward. They said he wasn't in trouble, but he sure felt like a little kid, being taking by the police to be taken home. "I'll be back guys." He said over his shoulder to the group. He could see their worried, yet confused looks as the walked behind the suited men.

"Wonder what that is all about." Ryokurio questioned, leaning back up asinat the dome's wall that they were next to.

"That's a good question." Joe threw in, walking over to the wall as well and sliding down it until his butt hit the soft earth. "Wonder what kind of situation Kev could possibly help them out of. It seems kind of random."

"I just hope he's going to be alright." Usami interrupted, looking at the four figures growing smaller and smaller as they walked away, vanishing completely when they rounded the corner of a smaller brick building that sat a good distance from the dome.

"I'm sure he will be." Joe spoke from his place on the ground, also looking at the figures.

"What would it matter?" Gurabe growled, a bit disgusted with how worried the three of them sounded. "If something did happen, it'd be one less human to worry about."

"And if you died that'd be…" Ryokurio began to say but was cut off when Gurabe held up his hand to the young man.

"You forget, I can't die." A smirk creased his face as he shot down Ryokurio's retort.

* * *

Kevin looked around confused. He stood alone in a rather dark room, since the three suited men walked off and told him to wait there. It was obviously some kind of office, almost reminding Kevin of a doctor's office with how calm the scenery looked. 

He didn't want to admit it, but he was slightly scared. He knew something was wrong here but he just didn't know what. Rubbing his arms, he felt his own goose bumps traveling over his skin.

Finally, he broke, turning around, he was going to head back to the door and his friends. But he didn't get a chance, as he turned, he saw a tall man in a white coat standing almost directly behind him.

"Going somewhere?" Kaiba, the man, asked in a deep, growl-like rumble.

Kevin was speechless as he took a few quick steps backwards out of fear. Looking into the deep blue eyes of the man behind him, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. Kaiba, as long as he's known the man, has been after Kevin.

"W…wha…what do you want, Kaiba?" Kevin spit out, slowly starting to regain his stamina.

"You know what I want." Kaiba held up his left arm, the white duel disk on it flashed to life and snapped out into place. "We duel; the winner becomes the true owner of all the Blue-Eyes cards in this game."

"I am not betting my Blue-Eyes in a duel with you or anyone!" Kevin snapped, his anger flushing out of him finally. "You cannot make me."

"I'm not going to make you do anything." Kaiba pulled out his own deck of cards, fanning them open before his face and flicking through them quickly. With ease, he pulled out a handful of cards. Turning them over, he showed Kevin some of the better and rarer cards in his deck, three of which were his own Blue-Eyes White Dragon's. "I put myself at this huge disadvantage. I will remove these cards from my deck even. Replacing them with an even number of cards so my deck is still legal."

"You'd even go this far?" Kevin asked, watching as Kaiba walked over to a chair that was placed against the wall in the small waiting room they seemed to be in. He put the stack of cards in his hand in a neat pile on the seat cushion before reaching down next to the seat and pulling up another duel disk that he had put there.

"I go as far as I need to." Kaiba tossed the disk to Kevin who caught it out of the air just before it hit him in the head. "If you win, you'll have all four Blue-Eyes cards left whole in this game's circuit. Wouldn't you like that?" Kaiba prodded at Kevin with his words, walking back out until he was directly across from the young man.

Reaching in his pocket, he produced another small stack of cards, fanning them open to show Kevin nothing but a bunch of really common cards. Closing them up, he slid them into his deck and began to shuffle.

"_No! I shouldn't…I…"_ Kevin's eyes drifted over to the chair where Kaiba's cards sat. He had seen them; they were some of Kaiba's top cards. He wouldn't even have to worry about Kaiba's powerful dragon strategy. _"The odds are in my favor though."_

A bead of sweat raced down Kevin's cheek, his mouth twisting from his annoyed frown into a slightly more cocky grin.

"Alright Kaiba, your on!" Kevin cried out, sliding the duel disk onto his own arm and letting it activate. Whipping out his own deck he slid it into the device's deck holder, ready for the duel.

"DUEL!"

* * *

Joe pushed his way back up the wall, staring at the small building off in the distance. "Wonder what is taking Kevin so long. We really don't have to terribly much time. We have to go get packed and get to the airport." 

"Our flight isn't until a bit later. We do have some time." Usami shot back at Joe.

"True, but we do have things to take care of. Getting out of our hotel, packed, and so on." Ryokurio placed his hand on his sister's shoulder as he spoke, trying to reason with her.

"You know," Gurabe started to talk as he leaned back against the wall. "I do give that most of you humans are pathetic, but he's not helpless. He could find his own way back to the hotel."

"Sadly, zombie boy is right." Joe said, taking one last look at the building where their friend disappeared to. "Let's go. Kev will just have to catch up with us."

"Alright." The two siblings nodded in agreement. The zombie just grunted and followed along behind when the three of them took off walking again.

The day had grown long, dragging out into late afternoon. The sun was starting to cast longer shadows across the pavement as the small group of people waited outside of the airport terminal.

"Dammit where is Kev?" Joe cursed, looking around as he spoke. Kevin still hadn't come back, but when the group went to the little office to check on him when he hadn't returned after a short time, they found it empty.

"Think he's been kidnapped?" Usami asked, looking at the other three people.

"That'll look good on Kaiba and his company if someone was kidnapped during a event sponsored by him." Ryokurio spoke, looking down at his younger sister. "But after this long I wouldn't doubt that he…" looking up, Ryokurio stopped right in his sentence, his mouth hanging wide open, "…is right there."

"Huh?" Joe and Usami said at the same time, turning to look where Ryokurio was. Indeed, trudging up the sidewalk was Kevin. His hands in his pockets, his head tilted downwards as he watched the sidewalk slowly moving under his feet.

"Kevin!" The three of them screamed, running off down the sidewalk towards the trudging kid. Gurabe grunted, crossing his arms and adverting his eyes to pay attention to something else, not interested in Kevin's reappearance.

"What happened to you?" Joe questioned, taking a hold of his friend by the shoulders and shaking him to make him look up at him. "Are you ok dude?"

"I…" Kevin began to say, his voice caught in his throat. He couldn't say anything. He couldn't even bring himself to cry. The gaze in his eye was enough to indicate to Joe, Ryokurio and Usami that their friend was suffering.

He tried again to speak, but his jaw just hung open, no words daring to poke their head out of his throat. Finally, he just pulled his hand out of his pocket, showing a mass of ripped up cardboard in his hand. His eyes closed, and his body gave out under him, dropping him to his knees.

"…lost…"

* * *

In the end, it was all but the same for the four members of Team Zero. The landing plane was the same. The dark blanked poked with holes that was draped over the sky of their home town. Their journey to their own homes was the same. The traffic, the people, the buildings, the barking dogs… 

The same.

But the four of them, they would never be the same. They had proven their strength not only to the best, not only to the world, but to themselves. They all felt they had seen what they could do, what they had to do to get better…and maybe found something inside themselves to ponder on.

As far as Reku, Ronin, Akina and Sachiko were concerned, they had done what many duelists dream of, and didn't embarrass themselves in the process.

Then again, the four of them should know that nothing in their lives was ordinary. Nothing in their lives was ever like anyone else's lives. Not the…_same._

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**_Kaiba co. Case File: Tournaments: #11pc - World Tournament _**

**_Owner/Operator/Overseer: Hiroshi, Kaito   
Location: Small, private owned island   
Rank: High Armature   
Type: Single Elimination   
Single/Team: 3 Man Team _**

**_INFO: The "World Tournament" is an amateur ranked tournament for rising duelists to get their names out into the circuits for future tournament references and possible advancement in ranks in the future. Held twice a year (Spring and Fall), regions from all over the world can assemble a three (3) man team for competition to represent their region. This can go about however the region deems fit (most commonly with a large tournament in a major city point where the top three (3) ranked duelists would form a team). _**

**_The top winning team gets each individuals name place into the Worlds Duelist Ranks (WDR) , as well as has the team's name placed on the World Team Duelist Ranks (WTDR) list, also for further advancement in ranks and reference for future events._**

**_NOTE: This is a seemingly ordinary tournament, but an incident involving a team that won there, Team Zero, has all of its dealings in the World Tournament buried. I've tried everything, but that whole tournament itself was wiped from their database. Nothing is left. _**

-last edited by: Kaiba, Seto**-**_****_

**_Kaiba co. Case File: Tournaments: #03ds – Tournament of Kings _**

**_Owner/Operator/Overseer: Kaiba, Seto, Maximillion Pegasus   
Location: Kaiba co. Dueling Dome   
Rank: Professional   
Type: Single Elimination   
Single/Team: 3 Man Team _**

**_INFO: A duo event sponsored by Industrial Illusions (I2) and the Kaiba corp. to allow a wide array of duelists more of a chance to increase their over all dueling ranks both and individual duelists and as a team. This is the first team event ever sponsored by the Kaiba corp. Each team is required three (3) dueling members each, one of which has to be named the captain of the team for team ranking purposes. _**

**_All who made it past the first round had their rankings in the World Duelist Ranks (WDR) and the World Team Duelists Ranks (WTDR) increased. The further a team advanced in the tournament, the more points would be added to their WDR and WTDR ranks. _**

**_NOTE: This tournament was blackmailed by a duelist that entered named Chime. She was using it for her own evil means, using a magic card I thought I would never see again: the Seal of Orichalcos. Despite all that, another competing team, Team Zero, did show me something else I didn't expect to counter attack with against Chime. Many things were going on in this tournament under my knowledge. Besides that, it was a waste of Kaiba corp. time and money._**

-last edited by: Kaiba, Seto-

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End file.
